About Haverhill

October 2025 --- Haverhill’s $444 tax increase in 2024 – the first municipal budget and tax bill under the city’s new mayor – was the largest single-year tax hike in 35 years.

   This year, the average home and other property tax bills increased by $300 – a combined $744 increase in just two years. The average home value in Haverhill is now $532,000 so if your home value is more than that, your tax bill went up even more.

   According to a recent report presented in Amesbury, Haverhill has one of the highest tax as a percent of income in our area - 16.37%. The highest is Amesbury at 21.44% and the lowest is Boxford at 10.82%.

   Future tax increases are projected to be even larger. Here’s the story why and what, if anything, can be done about it -- along with some background and what you can expect for your taxes in the next few years. 

   In 2022 and 2023, property taxes increased $180 and $215 respectively, in line with modest historic trends. Those were the last years of the city’s former, longtime mayor. The most recent two years of very large tax increases have taken place under the city’s new mayor and newly financially unrestrained City Council. 

   There’s always been some anger and frustration about higher taxes when the city’s new budget is revealed each year in late spring and again in the fall during what’s called “classification.”  (That’s when the mayor and City Council decide how that year’s tax levy will be divided between residential property owners and business owners.) Unfortunately, the city lacks a group or champion to fight back against the tax-and-spend movement that has overwhelmed Haverhill’s government and political system since the former mayor retired. 

   Residents get their tax bills twice a year, and despite complaints, recent history suggests people assume there’s nothing that can be done about the large increases except to complain on social media. Water and sewer bills are also increasing at historic rates.

   With local city elections coming next week, city officials are planning more spending increases: union pay raises and new City Hall jobs; new schools and other taxpayer-funded public construction projects; and public policy changes that will intensify the city’s tax bill crisis.

   The most successful political lie being spread right now is that the city has no choice but to raise taxes at these new, unprecedented levels. There’s a long list of rationales for this claim, including the desire to increase pay and benefits for city employees and years of alleged spending/budget neglect by Haverhill’s former mayor.

    But strong financial management isn’t neglect when it’s taxpayer money that comes from financially-stressed residents.

The current city budget is $277 Million, which is about $15 Million more than last year. City leaders could and should be making tougher decisions to control spending – not just in the past two years - but in the future as well - to stop these huge tax increases. There is also enough money in city coffers to subsidize water and sewer bills to reduce that burden on Haverhill residents.

Unfortunately, there is no appetite nor incentive for city officials to curb spending or stop raising taxes in the current political environment.

   In her bid for a second, two-year term, the city’s new mayor faces just a single, previously unknown challenger -- a 21-year-old political neophyte with an accounting background. He has run a passionate campaign and has promised to curb the tax-and-spend fury, but he has no real chance to win much more than the anti-incumbency vote.  

   Despite all the “throw the bums out” talk on local social media, the current mayor and every incumbent city councilor can expect to be easily re-elected Nov. 4. The only incumbent councilors at risk are one or two fiscal conservatives who have been targeted by the current administration to solidify its near-term spending priorities that favor and accommodate marginal special interest groups.

   Our current city government is neglecting the larger public – the non-insiders who are mostly unaware of the politics responsible for their exploding tax and water bills.

Most people don’t have the time to go to or watch a city council meeting on TV. Most aren’t inclined to research candidates to figure out which ones represent THEIR interests like controlling spending – a task made even harder because candidates never say they are for higher taxes.

WHERE IT STARTED: The foundation of the new tax increase era was established right before Haverhill’s former mayor’s final term ended in January 2024, when Haverhill voters passed a tax-increasing Proposition 2-½ debt exclusion to pay for a new Consentino public school. In a poorly publicized and sparsely attended special election, a small group of Haverhill voters won a tax increase more than the city normally would be allowed. 

   Prior to that election, the former mayor announced that there was enough money in reserve accounts to pay Haverhill’s share for the new Constantino school and NOT raise taxes. However, paying for the new school without raising taxes would leave the new mayor and incoming new City Council with insufficient extra money for new city budget increases, union pay raises and other spending priorities that they had promised their donors during their election campaigns. 

The new and current mayor formed and led the Consentino School debt exclusion campaign, and the mayor’s tax increase passed in a very close vote with very low voter participation. That tax is responsible for about $71 of this year’s tax increase, and it will increase and remain on the yearly tax bill for at least the next 25 years. 

WHAT’S COMING NEXT: Today’s city leaders, along with their union backers, are now politicking for two additional new schools, a new fire station, new animal shelter, new athletic fields, major park renovations, and more pay raises for school and public safety workers. The incumbent mayor said as recently as last week that she will endorse another special election tax increase to build a new Whittier middle school.  She is also part of a group that is developing a plan to build a new Whittier-Tech high school, a project that would require a separate and even larger tax increase. 

   Local media has reported that city government has announced new positions will soon be added to the payroll along with pay raises for firefighters, police, and school staff.  Many of those things are worthy and may be needed, but they have big price-tags and will require more tax increases. 

Sometimes spending cuts have to made in other places to pay for new priorities. But those are hard decisions that aren’t likely to be made unless and until elected officials fear consequences from voters. 

To confirm this, all you had to do was watch how easily the incumbent mayor and her City Council partners won re-election Nov. 4.

   The new mayor and the majority of the current City Council spent most of the former mayor’s 20 years in office, fighting him for larger budgets, more spending and higher taxes. Without a voice for restrained and responsible spending and limiting annual tax increases, Haverhill can be assured the current high taxes will continue to rise at historic levels.  

October 2025 --- Haverhill's failing and antiquated water and sewer systems are expensive to maintain and upgrade, but similar to skyrocketing property taxes, large bill increases for homeowners are a political choice and not inevitable.

   No matter how emphatically and earnestly those currently in political power tell you otherwise. 

   A Haverhill resident recently complained on social media that her latest water and wastewater bill ballooned from the usual $100 for her 2-person household to a staggering $3,950! 

   Another distraught customer responded that her water meter was recently changed and her new bill immediately shot up to an unbelievable $17,000. 

   Two more residents claimed their water bills soared to $1,700 and $2,300 from typical bills of $200 to $300.

   Those are true stories from the same recent week, and they’re not unusual. Similar horror stories can be found weekly on local Facebook pages. 

   More egregious increases like the ones highlighted above often are reported when the city installs a new meter reader at a customer's home. The city claims such sudden, large bill increases are the result of customers having been under-charged by the city for years due to low usage estimates by the city. 

   When the new meter reader is installed, it gives the city a faster, more accurate account of water use while at the same time rectifying months and sometimes years of low estimates and under charges.         The customer’s new, supposedly now accurate water use accounting, arrives in the form of a new, whooper of a bill. 

   Whether that’s true or not, and whether residents should accept that explanation, smaller but still significant water and sewer bill increases are commonplace for other reasons for everyone on Haverhill water and sewer service.  And it's only going to get worse unless something changes. 

   Separately - and almost as common as complaints about bill increases - are complaints about rusty and brown water in many parts of the city. Haverhill's water and sewer system is very old, replete with CSOs and other problems, and are extremely expensive to maintain and upgrade. (CSOs are combined sewer overflow systems in which single, century-old pipes collect both stormwater and sewage together and discharge it into the Merrimack River and other water bodies during heavy rains). The city is under pressure from federal regulators and local environmentalists to replace CSOs, which is a long and very expensive prospect. 

   The new city budget, which went into effect in July, includes a $13 increase for the average water bill and an $18 increase for the average sewer bill. Together, the average customer can expect to see their water/sewer bill increase by $31 this year. Those who use more water can expect an even larger bill increase. 

   This year's water budget is $14.1 million and the wastewater budget is $16.3 million. Last year, the city increased the water rate by 17% and the sewer rate by 11%. 

   According to projections found online or detailed at public government meetings, future water, sewer, and tax bills for Haverhill residents are expected to increase even more in the near future than they have in the prior two years. 

   No city councilor or mayor wants to raise taxes or water bills as a stand-alone question. They will tell you this, often in forceful and compelling language. However (and for the benefit of their political careers and re-election prospects) they require more revenue from residents to fund other worthy priorities like budget increases, union concessions, promised pay raises, and other special interest projects and spending. 

   This year's local government budget is $277 million - up about $15 million over the prior year. On top of that $277 million, there is $$$millions$$$ more in public money available to budget-makers in special and reserve water and sewer accounts. 

   The city could use more public funds to stop or limit annual water and sewer bill increases if officials really wanted to or believed their elected positions are at risk. Currently, they do not. And they have no reason to believe otherwise. 

Editor’s note: 

Info and numbers in this opinion piece are from publicly available information. For more details or to see for yourself, use Google to search news stories for "Haverhill tax and water bill increases" or visit the city website at:

https://www.haverhillma.gov/living-here/water-services/Haverhill