Tax Referendum Scares City Council

Fear that the $42 increase in the tax rate may provoke city residents to support a state tax-cut referendum this fall motivated the City Council last night to hold off on several new spending items.

The council rescinded an earlier vote that would have allotted $20,000 to break down the city's budget expenditures by neighborhood, and tabled for at least a week a proposal for an ombudsman to help in both relations between the Rent Control Board and the city's landlords and tenants.

"Before we hire anyone else we need to find out if the people already there can take a little more," Councilor Saundra Graham said last night.

"If you continue spending money here, I will challenge you on Proposition 2 1/2 between now and the election," Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci warned his fellows. Most officials in the city have squarely opposed the proposition on the November ballot that would slash property tax rates.

Local support for such a measure may increase this week--the city's mailing out its tax bills this morning.

Other councilors said the neighborhood budget expert was unnecessary; "If we're going to spend $20,000, it should be on something we can see, "City Councilor Kevin Crane '73 said, adding, "Any city councilor who drives around the city can tell you where the money is being spent and where it isn't."

The ombudsman ordinance, introduced by Councilor David Sullivan, is expected to pass at next week's meeting, which will be attended by representatives of the rent control board. But even if the position is created, Sullivan said he would ask that it not be filled until next fiscal year because of the city's budget.

"It is important to enact the legislation now so we can give the board time to plan, to recruit a person, and to fit him into the rent control bureaucracy," Sullivan said.

"This is just one more expense we will have to face on the day of reckoning," Crane countered, adding "And the first day of reckoning is today, when the tax bills go out."

The council voted last week to authorize a $42 increase in the tax rate, raising property tax rates to $230 on the thousand.