Salem voters passed the debt exclusion override on Tuesday to pay for a new high school by a margin of 4,133 in favor to 3,068 against, according to unofficial results.
'Yes’ votes outnumbered 'no’ votes by 57.4% to 42.6%, with 19% of the of the city’s voters turning out Tuesday, according to numbers posted by the city clerk’s office.
The tax hike is the first debt exclusion the city has ever approved in the 44 years since Proposition 2 1/2 took effect. The city has never asked for a permanent tax override either. Below is the story posted earlier Tuesday before the voting results were available.
Salem residents are headed to the polls on Tuesday to vote on a property tax override that would help fund a new building for the city’s high school.
If the measure passes, the increased property taxes would fund about $232 million of the total $447 million construction cost.
Grants from the Massachusetts School Building Authority would cover roughly $208 million.
“We’re at a point where I think the school needs to be improved,” said Salem resident Anthony Keck. “Part of the problem with our aging buildings is that if you want to bring in more current things that students need to learn, which includes different technologies, as part of our regular education, it requires a big change in the buildings.”
Voters are specifically being asked to approve a debt exclusion that would be added to their tax bills for 30 years starting in 2028. The average bill is expected to increase by roughly $700 per year, based on the city’s median home value of $590,000. That represents about an 11% increase to the current average tax bill of $6,200.
Salem is the second Gateway City this year to ask residents to consider an override under Proposition 2 ½, the state law that caps how much communities can raise annual taxes.
The vote in Salem comes just more than one month after Malden residents voted down a standard override to fund city services, losing by just 124 votes. But debt exclusion votes have historically been more successful, with the most recent one being approved in Fall River in 2022. Unlike regular overrides, funds raised through a debt exclusion can only be used for a specific project.
“It is expensive to do it. But there’s a lot involved … and I think it’s an important thing to look at for our students,” Keck said. “The way I see it is if we have more educated students, whether you have children or not, your community is better.”
Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo previously told GBH News that the current school has asbestos in the walls, mercury in the floor and leaking ceilings. The building also does not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“The level of need is certainly significant, not just from a bringing things up to code from a fire and building perspective, but also just safety in general,” said Salem resident Katie Gillium. “The plans to increase facilities to make them more modern and allow our students to be competitive with other local public tools seems like a no-brainer.”
John Carr, a lifelong resident of Salem, said he doesn’t think the building is in dire straits because it was just re-accredited in 2023.
“At Harvard, except for the lab sciences, every classroom I ever had was in a building over 200 years old,” he said. “Some people think that Harvard may be just one of the best schools in the world. Buildings don’t teach, teachers do.”
Carr, like other residents who oppose the override, worry that the estimated tax increases are being underestimated, especially with the likelihood of increasing property values.
“It’s a 30-year commitment and they say the annual cost won’t rise. That’s another lie. Your taxes will go up as your house assessment goes up,” he said “No one would ever take out a mortgage and not know how much they had to spend to pay it off.”
If the override doesn’t pass, Salem High School will still need to be renovated at an estimated cost of $461 million. The city would also have to reapply for matching funds from the state to offset renovation costs.
Salem resident Will Walsh said it is going to cost taxpayers regardless of whether a new high school is built or the current building is renovated.
“I know people don’t want to pay more taxes, but sometimes you have to put that aside and invest in the future and tax what you can, where you can for the right reasons,” said Walsh. “Being obtuse or blindly against things, it doesn’t help anyone.”
