May 16 City Council Meeting

Property Tax Relief
Several months ago, the City Manager has established a special committee to review options for providing tax relief to residential property owners. Two orders were sent to this committee with policy options for it to review. The first is a policy of limiting the annual tax increase to 10% on residential properties.The second order asked the committee to inform residents of the proper language required when a property is put in trust to maintain the residential exemption.


To date, the Council has asked the special committee to consider a wide variety of changes to provide relief to residential property taxpayers; all would require changes in state law. The committee has also been asked to look at alternative sources of funds, which again would require changes in state law. The current budget limits the levy increase to 2.5% but we will not know how that impacts individual taxpayers until the fall. The combination of an improving commercial real estate market with the completion of citywide revaluations last year suggests that increases on the residential side should be minimal.

Congratulations to ECSB
The City Council expressed its appreciation to East Cambridge Savings Bank on its continued work to provide education and training to Cambridge Rindge and Latin School students interested in the banking field.

More from the May 9 City Council Meeting

Method of Selecting Mayor on Hold
Last week I neglected to note that Councillors Galluccio and Reeves, co-chairs of the Special Committee on the Method of Election of the Mayor, had filed an order asking the City Solicitor to draft a home-rule petition on the method of election of the Mayor. The proposed change would provide for direct election of the Mayor using a method similar to that used in Worcester. Anyone running for City Council would also declare that he or she is a candidate for Mayor and voters would vote for both members of the City Council and for Mayor on Election Day. For the change to go into effect it would require approval by voters this fall. The Council voted to table the order.

Final Budget hearing Held May 11

Last week I promised to report on the final budget hearing that was held on May 11.  The major thing I have to report is that there is little to report. The Council did discuss the continued effort the City has made to finance public improvements and the attention it has paid to manage debt in a way that ensures continued capital improvements while limiting impact to tax payers. The $380 million FY 06 budget will go to the Council for a vote this coming Monday May 23rd.

For a listing of public meetings, visit the Public Meetings link or the Public Meeting Notices area of the City of Cambridge Web site.