Local Options: To Tax or Not To Tax?

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Mayor Bonfanti says while he sees "both sides of the issue" the City could really use the added tax money.

The Lynn Item: Peabody in pickle on local tax hike

What I don't find very convincing is Mayor Bonfanti's justification for raising the taxes: that the Legislature will be mad at the cities and towns for NOT enacting the taxes while still looking for State relief. To me this sounds like grasping at straws for a reason BESIDES the fact that the City needs more funds... and it seems rather week to me.

The other assertion, that it would be easier if everyone were to enact the increase (Danvers has voted no while Saugus has voted yes) and has the Mayor wishing Salem would pass it to make it easier for Peabody to do the same... is NOT LEADERSHIP! It is being a follower. Stop it and just do the right thing because it is THE RIGHT THING... even if it hurts you in the polls.

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The Massachusetts State Legislature has give Cities and Towns the local option to add a local tax onto hotel rooms and/or meals. This would add up to 2% to the cost of a hotel or motel room and up to 0.75% to the cost of a meal in a restaurant.

The Peabody Weekly News: Decision on local luxury tax hikes stalled until fall

Note: The PWN only has stories up for one week

The Salem News Editorial: Nelson Benton: Nothing tasty about meals tax
The Salem News: Megavoke OK'd, Meals tax denied in Danvers
The Salem News: Local Taxes may rise in tough times
The Salem News: Senate OKs hike in sales, alcohol tax
The Boston Globe: Tax options raise interest, with caution
The Boston Globe: Towns consider tax hike

The problem: State aid to Cities and Towns has plummeted in recent years.
The (one small?) solution: Give local communities the ability to gather their own local taxes with an increase in hotel and meals taxes.

This is not a perfect solution, but it is one way to allow Cities and Towns to gather additional income in very difficult financial times.

The reality of the hotel/motel situation is that adding 2% to the hotel room charges would equal around an additional $2.00 a day to the average hotel/motel room in Peabody. And since the vast majority of the people staying these hotels are from out of town... this seems a perfect way to recoup some of the losses in State funding.

The meals tax is a little more personal as it will mostly affect the locals who frequent Peabody restaurants. However, this additional tax is EXTREMELY SMALL... 0.75% in fact, so small that it simply can not be held up as a DETERRENT to folks seeking to have a meal in a local eatery.

The cost of eating out will change very little... in fact, here are some prime examples...

Breakfast at Dunkin Donuts:
Large coffee and a bagel with cream cheese:
$4.38 --------- + 3 cents tax! = $4.41

Lunch at Sonic (just opened on Rt. 1):
A Number 2 (SuperSONIC Cheeseburger Combo w/ medium fries + drink)
$5.99 --------- + 5 cents tax! = $6.04

Dinner at Sugarcane (for two):
Hot & Sour soup (2), Crab Rangoon, Orange Duck, General Gau's Chicken, and 2 (!) Scorpion Bowls
$64.00 --------- + 48 cents tax! = $64.48

Special Romantic Evening Out for 2 at Legal Seafoods
2 signature cocktails, oysters and coconut shrimp appetizers, shared large Caesar salad, surf & turf (shrimp & scallops), grilled wild salmon, bottle of wine ($45), 2 signature desserts and cappuccinos
$190.00 --------- + $1.43 tax! = $191.43

This should pretty much prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this additional amount of tax would do NO ONE any harm and indeed would NOT change anyone's plans to stop in for a quick bite... or an evening of fine dining.

Now on to the man who cost Peabody $300,000...
Thanks to Councilor Rico Mello - who seems perpetually stuck in some other reality - the City Council will not take up the discussion on these local taxes - NOT EVEN DISCUSS IT!?! - until the Fall... thus losing out on approximately $300,000 in additional City revenues that Mayor Bonfanti proposed applying towards desperately needed road and sidewalk repairs.

Now I am NOT saying I think we should allocate these moneys to ANY ONE project... and if we DO pick only one... roads and sidewalks are NOT the number one need in this City.

But for Councilor Mello to yet again show himself as the OPPONENT OF ANY CHANGE in this City is yet another reason to elect a better representative in the coming elections.

Westside Restaurant Updated

It seems to me like the Peabody Weekly News is becoming a better source of good reporting than any other newspaper around. Here is an update from them regarding the Westside Restaurant special permit and the ensuing controversies

The Peabody & Lynnfield Weekly News:
Council postpones vote on alcohol license for Westside
Note: PLWN articles are only available for approximately one week

I sincerely appreciate Councilor Bettencourt informing the public as to the nature of the emergency that led to the recess of the City Council meeting that evening. I am especially glad to hear that everyone is now fine and that his family is safe.

I stand by my previous comments that the meeting should not have been stopped. The fact that one councilor was not able to be present for the meeting (even though he did attend part of it) is irrelevant.

A quorum is the minimum number of meeting members that need to be present in order for official business to take place. For the City Council that number is 6.

Now a special permit needs to have a super majority (in this case 8 votes) in order to be approved. Thus, with Councilor Manning choosing to vote no the die was cast for the special permit to fail.

This is why I called into question the shenanigans that went on with Councilor Bettencourt's emergency call. It was not that he was responding to a family emergency - of course any good parent would have left to take care of his family - it was the closing of the meeting to prevent the special permit from failing.

Aside: I have reviewed all my comments made concerning this matter. I find that I have consistently sought WHY the meeting was postponed instead of continuing and I questioned the legitimacy of such actions. I also stated that IF the entire emergency was a concoction used to postpone the proceedings, that such actions would have been reprehensible. And because of the actions by the Council AFTER the departure of Councilor Bettencout, I felt it was important that it be reported what actually happened.

And while this apparently angered a few readers, it seems Councilor Bettencourt also felt the need to share the reasons for his departure with the press.

UPDATED: Westside Restaurant zoning controversy

** UPDATED IN NEW POST **

I don't really have an opinion either way about beer and wine at the Westside. I've never eaten there and I don't know anything about the restaurant's relationship with the neighborhood.

But I wonder where Councilor Athas got his law degree?? He fails to account for the entire section 1.5 Nonconformance of the Peabody Zoning Ordinance.

The Salem News: Westside seeks alcohol license
The Salem News Our View: Councilor didn;t want to hear it
The Salem News Letters to the Editor: Alcohol has no place in residential neighborhoods

Note: This post is written by Peabody Roundtable member Needham's Corner and may differ from the views of the Peabody Insider

A little background: when the Mass. Legislature adopted the Zoning Enabling Act (the "modern" act mostly dates from 1975, but there was a provision for nonconformance in the 1920 Act as well), they wanted a way to make sure that then-existing uses and structures would not be made illegal by subsequent local zoning ordinances and thus be considered a "taking" under the state and federal constitutions.

Our Peabody ordinance has a similar provision. It reads in part as follows:

"Any existing nonconforming use of a structure…may be changed or extended…provided that the special permit granting authority [that's the City Council, folks] determines, after a public hearing, by the grant of a special permit that such change, extension or alteration:
has adequate provision for offstreet parking; [and]
is similar in character, intensity of use, effect on adjacent property [and] effect on public hearing, morals, or safety as to be not substantially more detrimental to the neighborhood, than the existing nonconforming use…

Conditions may be placed on the special permit.

Westside is an existing nonconforming use, because it is in a residential district, and restaurants aren't allowed in that residential district.

But hold the phone: what this section of the ordinance means to this non-attorney observer is that the City Council COULD allow the restaurant use to be "changed or extended" to allow beer and wine IF (and only if) the Council found, after a public hearing, that there was enough parking, and that the restaurant with beer/wine was similar enough to a restaurant WITHOUT beer and wine so as not to be "substantially more detrimental to the neighborhood" (get out your dictionaries, folks).

Court opinions rely on dictionary definitions all the time. I'm no legal scholar but I've read a number that do. I guess Councilor Sinewitz hasn't read those. But maybe before he blasts City Solicitor Christopher (who IS an attorney) perhaps he and Councilor Athas would like to read the WHOLE zoning ordinance, not just randomly opine that because the restaurant is in a residential district they can't have beer and wine. Whine, indeed.

My bottom line: Westside is entitled to have a hearing. The Council should consider how detrimental beer and wine are to the neighborhood, and decide accordingly.

NECN and Billy Costa visit Peabody hungry... and leave satisfied!

New England Cable News is one of the first places I turn to for breaking local news... now granted breaking news means in the first 6-8 hours... but where else are you going to turn?

And one good thing about NECN is Billy Costa and his quest for gastronomical greatness. His program Destinations was in Peabody this week looking for a few good places to enjoy dinner. I thought it was worth sharing.

Destination Peabody: Pellana

Destination Peabody: O'Fado

Destination Peabody: Westside Family Restaurant

Destination Peabody: Sugar Cane


And one more feature of the NECN site is Pipin Hot Spots. In this segment they discuss some Peabody favorites: Petrillo's, Su-Chang's, Fire Bull and Toscana's.