By Paul Tennant
ptennant@eagletribune.com
June 30, 2009 12:04 am HAVERHILL — If the City Council approves Mayor James Fiorentini's proposed $146.3 million budget tonight, residents and businesspeople will have to dig deeper into their pockets for licenses. Fees for marriage licenses and other items obtained at the city clerk's office, building permits and liquor licenses, are expected to be higher after tonight's meeting at 7 in council chambers at City Hall. On the school side, students in elementary and middle schools will not face a year divided into trimesters, Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan said. The School Committee was considering a plan that would have cut in half the instructional time for art, music and physical education in the lower grades by eliminating 17 teaching positions. The plan also would have reorganized the academic year into trimesters, with students taking a different "encore" subject — art, music and gym — each grading period. Earlier this month, however, the committee was able to save eight of those 17 positions, in part, by scrapping plans to add 19 special education positions. Buchanan said there will be more middle-school classes in excess of 30 students because of cuts in teachers. The mayor said real estate taxes will probably not rise, at least not significantly, as a result of the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins Wednesday. The current year's budget was $145.9 million. "I expect we will pass the budget," City Council President Michael Hart said. He noted the council is not empowered to increase the budget; it can only decrease it. "We've gone through every (city department's) budget," he said. "There is little appetite to do any cutting." City Councilor Mary Ellen Daly O'Brien, chairwoman of the council's Administration and Finance Committee, said the panel decided against raising dog license fees but supported increasing others. "I'm not asking for a trash fee," Fiorentini said. Other fees, however, appear to be headed upward. The cost of a marriage license will increase from $25 to $35, if the council approves the budget. A business certificate will cost $50, compared with the current $40. Licenses for entertainment will jump from $5 to $20. Licenses for selling second-items will go from $50 to $60. The council also is expected to act on Fiorentini's plan to defer payments on the principal of the $7 million annual Hale Hospital debt, which the city incurred in 2001 after it sold the facility to Essent Health Care. The institution is now Merrimack Valley Hospital. Any savings from the debt plan will go into the stabilization account, the mayor said. Daly O'Brien said she could support Fiorentini's Hale debt plan if the numbers work. "These are extraordinary times," she said. Hart, however, said he does not like the idea of deferring the debt principal. No matter how much the principal is put off, it still must be paid, he pointed out. "I would not be surprised if it did not pass," he said. ÔÇæÔÇæÔÇæ Join the discussion. To comment on stories and see what others are saying, log on to eagletribune.com. Budget impact Real estate tax hike: No significant jump, said Mayor James Fiorentini. Fee increases: Marriage license likely to rise from $25 to $35; business certificate cost to go from $40 to $50. School impact: Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan says elementary and middle schools will not switch from quarters to trimesters for art, music and gym classes, but there will be nine fewer teaching positions for those subjects. Also, Buchanan said because of the loss of 47 teaching positions, many from retirements and resignations, there will be more classes in excess of 30 students, mostly in the middle schools.
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