Property Taxes To Increase $42

Cambridge City Manager James L. Sullivan told the City Council last night that the city's tax rate will soar $42 next year--and that news made the council reluctant moments later to support pay hikes for high-level city employees.

Increases in school costs and a 32-per-cent jump in the assessment the city pays the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, are reasons the tax rate will jump from $188 to $230.40 per $1000, Sullivan said.

The tax increase exceeds the state-mandated 4-per-cent tax cap which the city council overrode last night. "The only thing more ridiculous than relying on the property tax is trying to put a cap on that tax," City Councilor David Sullivan said, adding, "I have no qualms about overriding the cap."

Eight is Too Much

Within minutes of the city manager's announcement, the council voted on a proposed 8-per-cent pay increase for the department heads and non-union supervisors. Five councilors supported the hike--enough to keep the proposal alive--but one shy of the number needed to appropriate the money.

A final vote on the raises will be within two weeks. If a sixth vote is not found, pay for the upper-level employees will be $1000, the average for other city workers.

Although all councilors insisted they understood the supervisors' pay is not keeping pace with the rate of inflation, the three opposing the raise said they fear it would drive property taxes even higher.

"I cannot vote to ask the taxpayers of this city to pay one more than the already outrageous $42," Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55 said.

"The question is how we will allocate the unfairness in the system," Councilor Sullivan told an audience that included many high-level city employees.

"I think the only answer to that question--and it is an imperfect answer--is that we must allocate the unfairness to those who can best afford it," Sullivan added. The city's fiscal crunch is the "perfect example of the folly of relying on property taxes," he added.

Public Works Department head Conrad Fagone, who led the drive for the pay hikes, told the council his department and others would try to cut costs to provide enough money for the raises.

James Cassidy, president of Local 195 Independent Public Employees Association, said he hopes the council will "have as much concern for the common laborer," when his union asks for wage increases later this fall. "I'm not against any man getting a raise--I just want to it be fair across the board," Cassidy said.