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By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

Taking a closer look at notable city data—and interesting numbers.  Fiscal year 2020 begins on July 1 and throughout June the City Council will be reviewing the budget we have submitted. Visit www.somervillema.gov to find meeting dates and times.

2.5%: Even if you don’t spend much time talking about municipal finance, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Proposition 2 ½. Passed by voters in 1980, Proposition 2 ½ sets rules around tax assessments and levies. The part you’ve likely heard about the most is the section that caps property tax increases at 2.5%. Any increase beyond that would require an override vote, which Somerville has never done. (In 2016 voters did approve a debt exclusion to pay for the new Somerville High School, which is different from an override.) Here’s where things can get a little confusing: Although the tax rate can’t be raised more than 2.5%, sometimes property owners see an increase larger than 2.5%. That’s because property tax bills are based both on the tax rate and the value of the property. From fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2019 Somerville’s residential tax rate decreased by nearly 5% (the FY2020 tax rate will be set by the City Council later this year), but if a property’s value increased taxpayers may end up with a larger bill than the year before.

$3 million: In in the next fiscal year, we’re proposing a more than $3 million investment in Vision Zero, an international movement to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Some of the investments we hope to make include traffic calming measures in neighborhoods around Somerville, traffic signal retiming, and additional staff and consultant capacity to manage the work. We can all agree that it’s important to make sure everyone can get around the city safely, but if you’re worried about the price tag, there’s some good news – less than $1 million would be coming out of the general fund. The majority of the funding would come from other sources like state and federal grants, the capital improvement program, and the Municipal Rideshare Fund.

4.9% increase: This year’s budget proposes a nearly 5% increase to the Somerville Public Schools budget. Educating our youth is one of the City’s most important responsibilities and biggest investments. Thirty percent of our budget is dedicated to the schools and we’ve made steady increases to it over time. The school budget includes many services to help our young people thrive including core academic and vocational programs, school readiness, and out-of-school programs.

$300,000: The Office of Housing Stability offers a variety of services to tenants and those seeking housing in Somerville. The greater Boston region remains in a housing crisis, making programs that prevent displacement and homelessness or help with housing searches vitally important. This year we’re prosing an additional $300,000 go into the Office of Housing Stability’s budget for the Housing Stabilization Fund, legal services, tenant organizing, and housing search assistance. Finding and securing housing can be a complex process and we want to make sure help is available when residents need it.

$15: Each year, the budget includes funding for salaries and accounts for any changes in pay. Recently, Somerville adopted a $15 living wage policy for all part-time staff. While that will mean an increase in some of our salary lines, it’s also an important step toward economic justice. Our schools give students the education they need to find good jobs and our Economic Development team works to bring in those good jobs and fill in any training or skills gap. But it’s also important for us to live our values and pay our part-time employees at least $15 an hour.

Data-based decision making is at the core of how the City of Somerville develops policy and sets priorities. Every day we check the latest 311 stats, and throughout the week we meet for in-depth review of departmental data and city trends. The Data Download column shares some of the data we’ve been reviewing recently, as well as interesting updates. To see more Somerville Data, visit the online Somerville Data Farm at www.somervillema.gov/datafarm.