Dartmouth residents may vote on a tax override in the presidential election this fall rather than the upcoming election on April 7 after the Select Board narrowly voted to create a task force on the issue at a meeting on March 2.

The board decided to delay the override vote in order to give officials more time to inform residents on the issue.

The Proposition 2 ½ override would allow the town to increase taxes above the state-mandated 2.5 percent maximum per year for a more competitive split in health care costs for town employees. Dartmouth currently pays 52 percent of its employees’ health insurance costs.

The town is looking into the feasibility of increasing its contribution to 60 percent to help with insurance rates that are among the highest in the region.

On March 2, the Select Board voted 3-2 in favor of creating the committee, which will come up with language for a ballot question on the tax override to put to a vote at the next election.

The board also considered moving forward with an override ballot question for the next town election on April 7. However, Town Administrator Shawn MacInnes noted, “The timeline is very short...The ballot question wording would need to be to the town clerk by tomorrow.” 

But some board members disagreed with this approach.

“Getting the wording, even though it’s pretty much boilerplate, for tomorrow — I don’t think there’s enough time before the election,” said board member Shawn McDonald, adding that there is a lot of confusion on the issue among the public. “They need to understand this completely,” he said. 

If the question is brought immediately before the next election, McDonald warned, “This will go down in flames. That’s why you need to explain it, bring it, and sell it.”

“If we don’t craft this properly, if we confuse people, it will fail,” agreed board member David Tatelbaum.

Others were not so sure. 

“We’ve been kicking the can down the street for years and years and years,” said board chair Stanley Mickelson. “We need to do something about it.”

Board member John Haran said that he’d like to see the whole town vote on the issue. “I personally will not be voting for [the override],” he noted. “But I still think the town has to vote on it themselves.”

Meanwhile although board member Frank Gracie said he supported a more generous insurance split, he would be against a tax override to pay for it. 

Mickelson and Haran were the two dissenting votes in the board’s decision to create the committee, which will include members of the Select Board, School Committee, and Finance Committee among other town agencies and representatives from each of the town employees’ 11 unions.

Several educators stood up to speak during the meeting, including Dartmouth schools occupational therapist Kathleen Baldwin, who said that she was “taken aback” by the negative comments. “We will get people out to those polls,” she said.

Baldwin and Dartmouth educator Kathleen Simmons noted that the town’s teachers pay hundreds of dollars for yearly classes required to keep their licenses, and also pay out of pocket for many classroom supplies.

Meanwhile, said Simmons, the override would cost residents up to $169 split over four quarters. “Our town residents cannot afford that? I’m one of the lowest paid Dartmouth educators, and I could afford that,” she said, noting that she has four jobs to make ends meet.

Simmons added that the insurance issue is losing the town quality educators. “I can personally tell you that we are hiring educators, and when they come to sign the paperwork, they decline the job,” she said.

The discussion came after MacInnes updated the board with latest cost estimates for a 60-40 split, taking into account insurance rates that were decided in January.

A 60-40 split for just current town employees would cost $2.2 million, and employees and retirees together would cost $3.1 million, MacInnes said.

Based on the current median home price of $331,300, the lower-cost override would add $121.32 per year to a resident’s bill, while the higher-cost override would add $169.57.

Dartmouth’s current tax rate of $9.93 per $1,000 in assessed value is the 35th lowest rate out of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts.