Gloucester committee backs keeping the same tax split for homes and businesses

Gloucester's Budget and Finance Committee voted Thursday to recommend the same split of the property tax between homes and businesses that the city has used for ten years. The vote was 3 to 0, from the meeting video. The full City Council holds its public hearing and vote Tuesday, Oct. 27.

What happened

• The committee recommended a residential factor of 0.9973, which is a 1.03 shift onto commercial, industrial and personal property. That is the same shift as fiscal 2026 and every year since fiscal 2017.
• With that shift the estimated tax rates are $9.03 per $1,000 of value for homes and $9.33 for businesses, down from $9.31 and $9.61 this year, because values rose about 7 percent.
• The committee backed a $132,000 state grant for downtown signs and a refresh of the HarborWalk, 2 to 1, after a long debate about cost and the working waterfront.
• It backed a $124,300 state grant to write housing zoning for the Railroad Avenue area, 2 to 0 with one member voting present, and a $14,000 Mass Cultural Council grant, 3 to 0.
• Donations to the Archives, Veterans Services and a police youth fishing program were also recommended.

The tax split: same as last year

Each fall the council decides how to divide the property tax levy, the total the city raises in property taxes, between residential property and the commercial, industrial and personal property class, called CIP. The choice does not change the total. It only moves the load.

Principal Assessor Nancy Papows walked the committee through the assessors' packet. The state Department of Revenue approved the city's fiscal 2027 values on Sept. 17. Homes are now 91.7 percent of the city's $12.5 billion in taxable value, and CIP is 8.3 percent. In fiscal 2014 homes were 88.8 percent.

The city's taxable value rose close to 7 percent. Single family homes rose 7.37 percent on average, apartments 12.42 percent and condominiums 1.27 percent. Commercial values rose about 6.5 percent and industrial just over 5.5 percent.

The maximum the city can raise is $113,667,604. That includes four debt exclusions, votes that let payments on big projects sit outside the Proposition 2 1/2 limit: the sewer overflow project, the water debt, East Veterans Elementary School and the seasonal water line upgrade. Divided by all taxable value, that gives a single tax rate of about $9.05 per $1,000 if every class paid the same.

The packet shows what each shift means. At the 1.03 shift, the owner of a $750,000 home pays about $15 a year less than at a single rate, and a business property of the same value pays $210 more. At the largest shift the state allows, 1.5, a $750,000 home would save $300 and a business would pay about $3,400 more. The median single family home in Gloucester is now valued at $775,500, the assessors said, and the average at $1,099,345.

Councilor Jason Grow, sitting in for Council President Tony Gross, said he would have preferred a 1.2 shift to return to the 90 to 10 split the city had for years, since homes keep taking a larger share of the value, but said he had no support for it. Chair Scott Memhard said he believes a single rate would be fairest to the small commercial base. Councilor Patti-Ann Page said business is hard to attract in Gloucester and she would keep this year's split.

Papows said she had spoken with Mayor Paul Lundberg that afternoon and his recommendation is to keep the 1.03 shift. The committee agreed. Residents and business owners who came to the meeting were not able to speak; Memhard said that comes at the council's public hearing Tuesday.

$132,000 for signs and the HarborWalk: 2 to 1

The Community Development Department presented a Massachusetts Downtown Initiative Capital Grant of $132,000 from the state Executive Office of Economic Development, with no city match. The grant runs from Jan. 1, 2027 to April 30, 2028.

Economic Development Coordinator Emily Sloan said it pays for seven more wayfinding signs, including a welcome sign at the train station, small arrow signs to guide people walking downtown from the train, and a sign marking downtown for drivers arriving on Washington Street. It also pays to replace more than 100 HarborWalk signs on the trail's 42 granite posts. The HarborWalk opened in 2012 and its signs were built to last 10 years, she said; many are now hard to read.

Arts, Culture and Events Coordinator Miranda Aisling Hynes said the grant also funds 10 sidewalk trail markers made of thermoplastic, which lasts up to 10 years, with smaller markers between them. The designs are not drawn yet and will come out of public engagement, she said, and the city's Committee for the Arts will be included.

Community Development Director Alex Koppelman said the first round of large directory signs was about 90 percent federal money, that the signs should last about 20 years, and that this grant "makes good" on that earlier spending.

Page said she would not support it. She said the first phase signs cost $33,800 each, asked again that the sign on Stacy Boulevard be moved, and objected to using federal Community Development Block Grant money for future upkeep. She read a statement on the working waterfront, saying the St. Peter's Square marina rebuild, funded by a $2.7 million state Seaport Economic Council grant with a $700,000 local match, has no hoist for lobster gear, and that lobstermen have been told to clear traps from the city dock before Nov. 15. She said she sees the sign and art projects as part of a pattern that pushes out the fishing industry.

Grow asked what signs had to do with a hoist. The committee voted 2 to 1 to recommend the grant.

$124,300 to rezone Railroad Avenue

The committee also took up the Housing Choice grant from the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. Koppelman said it carries out a main recommendation of the Housing Compass, the city's housing plan adopted last month: hire a consultant to write Chapter 40R smart growth zoning for the Railroad Avenue corridor, run community engagement and study traffic and infrastructure at the former grocery store site. The goal, he said, is enough housing nearby to bring back a grocery store. Zoning can require a store on the ground floor, he said, but cannot make an owner build one.

The grant needs a $12,500 city match and runs from Jan. 1, 2027 to June 30, 2028. Page said she received the 138 page application at 3 p.m. and voted present. The vote was 2 to 0 with one present. (Read the schedule the Planning Board subcommittee heard.)

The rest of the agenda

• Mass Cultural Council, $14,000. Hynes said this is the yearly state grant that the Gloucester Cultural Council regrants to local artists and groups. Almost 40 applications came in this year; awards go out in January, usually $200 to $1,000 each. It is separate from the $15,000 a year each of the city's two cultural districts receives. Approved 3 to 0.
• Donations. $65 to the Archives, $3,720.01 to Veterans Services and $100 to the police Community Impact Unit's Youth Anglers program, which takes city kids fishing with officers. All recommended.
• A portrait. The city clerk's office asked to accept a framed portrait of former City Clerk Joanne Senos, valued at $150, for the gallery of past clerks. Recommended 2 to 0 with one member out of the room.
• A transfer. $389.76 moved within Veterans Services to cover a salary shortfall.
• Auditor's report. City Auditor Kenny Costa said 18 accounts are overdrawn by about $23,000 in all, three more than last report, which he called very good for this time of year.

What was decided

• Tax classification, residential factor 0.9973 (1.03 shift) for fiscal 2027: recommended, 3 to 0, from the meeting video.
• Massachusetts Downtown Initiative Capital Grant, $132,000: recommended, 2 to 1, from the meeting video.
• Housing Choice grant, $124,300 with a $12,500 match: recommended, 2 to 0 with one voting present, from the meeting video.
• Mass Cultural Council grant, $14,000: recommended, 3 to 0, from the meeting video.
• Donations of $65, $3,720.01 and $100, a $150 portrait and a $389.76 transfer: recommended, from the meeting video.

Budget and Finance only recommends. The full City Council takes the final votes.

What happens next

• Tuesday, Oct. 27: City Council public hearing and vote on tax classification. Residents can speak at the hearing.
• Thursday, Nov. 5: next Budget and Finance meeting, with the city's report on retiree health care costs, called the OPEB valuation.

Where to find the records

• Budget and Finance revised agenda, Oct. 22
• Tax classification packet, fiscal 2027, from the Board of Assessors
• Meeting recording, on the city's 2026 Past Meetings page

Earlier coverage: Gloucester's new wayfinding signs cost $28,000 each, councilor says (Oct. 22), the committee's Oct. 8 meeting. Gloucester gets $124,300 to rezone Railroad Avenue for housing (Oct. 17), the plan and schedule for the grant. Gloucester adopts Housing Compass, a five year road map for housing (Oct. 2), the housing plan. Thursday on Cape Ann (Oct. 21), the agenda preview.

How we did this: Cape Ann Current watched the meeting online and checked names and figures against the agenda, the assessors' packet and the council's committee roster on the city website. These are our meeting notes, not the city's minutes.