50 Massachusetts Towns tackle property tax hikes

The Boston Globe reports:

With little relief anticipated from Beacon Hill, 50 Massachusetts towns are considering property tax hikes to close budget holes brought on by increased health insurance premiums, special education costs, government salaries, and other local expenses.

Voters this month will be asked to approve property tax hikes ranging from $750,000 in Dartmouth to pay an injured officer's medical bills to $5.2 million in Saugus to save the library, 18 teachers, and four police officers from the budget ax.

The state's Proposition 2 1/2 law, passed in 1980, limits annual increases in a community's tax levy to 2.5 percent, requiring voter approval for property tax increases above that level. Across the state, the limit puts into focus two deeply contradictory themes: the steadily increasing demands of local governments to pay for services, and the weariness of property owners fed up with their taxes, which averaged $4,007 for a single-family home in the current fiscal year.

Last year, voters rejected 59 of 89 override proposals, marking the lowest approval rate statewide since 1999. The average override attempt was about $630,000 last year.

More taxes means more money for government workers.