HAVERHILL — The price of a restaurant meal in the city is about to go up.
But on the other hand, the extra money diners will be paying will be used to save the jobs of police officers, firefighters and teachers, Mayor James Fiorentini has promised.
A portion of the tax money will also be used to keep the Bradford Fire Station open, promote city restaurants and dress up the downtown restaurant district with flowers and lights during the holiday season, the mayor said. The fire station was set to close in July.
By a vote of 6 to 3, the City Council last night approved the mayor's proposal to add a local meals tax of .75 percent to the state's 6.25 sales tax. The meals tax, which will add 38 cents to a $50 meal, is estimated to generate $500,000 annually for the city.
Also last night, a proposal to increase the local tax on hotel stays from 4 percent to 6 percent lost by a 4-5 vote. The hotel tax increase, which would have generated an estimated $42,000 a year, seemed on its way to passing until the owner of one of two hotels in the city convinced at least two councilors that it could ruin his business.
The meals tax vote took place after more than two hours of debate at a meeting packed by Fiorentini with about 100 passionate supporters.
Dozens of school officials and parents with children in city schools urged the council to pass the meals tax. Teachers, principals, administrators and current and former School Committee members were there, as were most city department heads.
The current and former police chief spoke about the need to save at least two of five police jobs on the chopping block.
At one point, Fiorentini asked everyone who supports the meals tax to stand up. All but four or five people in the audience rose to their feet. One councilor said she received around 400 emails from people urging her to support the meals tax.
At least four downtown restaurant owners showed up to support the tax. The mayor had them to stand twice to show the council that they support the tax.
Only one restaurant owner, Len Caffrey of the Ninety Nine on River Street, spoke in opposition.
"This is a 15 percent increase on top of a tax that just went up 25 percent," Caffrey said, referring to the fact the state recently raised the sales tax. "Raising taxes hurts business and business is already hurting because of the economy. My customer counts are way down and this tax could hurt my business even more."
Other restaurant owners said they don't think the tax will hurt.
"I was against it at first," said Sharon Cohen, who manages The Tap restaurant and brewery on Washington Street. "But the more I understand where the money will go, I think it's a good idea. The city can't get people to go to the post office and put 75 cents in a can, but if it can do this for police and schools and to help keep the downtown clean and safe, this will help more than hurt us."
Several parents spoke in support of the tax.
"I sent messages to 60 friends and not one of them said they would not come to Haverhill restaurants because of the meals tax," said Elle Gallo, who has three children at Bradford Elementary School. "But we'll have to move out of the city if the schools keep going down."
Voting for the tax were councilors Robert Scatamacchia, Colin LePage, Mary Ellen Daly O'Brien, Sven Amirian, William Macek and President Michael Hart. Voting against it were councilors William Ryan, Michael Young and David Hall.
"I'm opposed to this for philosophical reasons," Young said. "We can't tax ourselves out of our financial problems. When is enough going to be enough?"
Young said he believes there is money in Haverhill's $143.5 million budget that could be used to save the police and firefighter jobs, without resorting to more taxes. He said he believes the mayor has omitted more than $600,000 in revenue from his spending proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
"I think there's money out there, without putting more of a burden on restaurants," Young said. "Maybe it's not hidden. Let's just say it's unaccounted for.
Hall told those in the audience "you don't know what I know," in regard to the mayor's efforts to trim spending.
"I've been slammed all over Haverhill for being against this," Hall said. "But I have to protect people on fixed incomes getting killed with all these taxes. ...The mayor's the best politician in Massachusetts. He got all his people to send emails and tell us what he wanted you to tell us. But I have to draw a line in the sand."
Macek called his vote in favor of the tax "one of my toughest ever."
"It's not the amount of money, it's what is stands for," Macek said. "The mayor did a good job pushing the three hot buttons — police, fire and education. But this isn't a pot of gold. It's $500,000 tops, and it will take a full year to come in. But we probably need to put this on the books because we need the money."
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