Winthrop spent the summer arguing about things that sound small and are not: what a taxi ride should cost, whether the town should keep license plate cameras, how much Massport should pay for the airport next door, and who runs the town’s largest apartment complex. Underneath all of it is a $68.4 million budget that went up 3 percent while the town absorbed the loss of three health grants and $2.5 million in state money tied to the housing law it has refused to comply with. Here is the season in one place.
Turco wins by 26 points
State Representative Jeff Turco, first elected in a 2021 special election and unopposed twice since, drew his first real challenge this year from Lee Meyer, a paramedic running as a progressive on health care, cost of living and an audit of the Legislature. Meyer’s campaign was built on opposition to Turco’s conservative positions, including his early support for Donald Trump. It was not close. Turco took 63 percent to Meyer’s 37 in the September 1 Democratic primary, backed by a $350,000 campaign fund and endorsements from the party’s incumbents. “To all the people who volunteered, supported and voted for this campaign, I’m so grateful,” Meyer said.
The budget
The Town Council set the fiscal 2027 budget at $68.4 million in June, up from $66.4 million, a 2.95 percent increase that the town estimates will add about $21 to the average tax bill of $8,293. Schools take the majority share. The drivers were a newly ratified three-year teachers’ contract after a year of negotiations, and a 42.8 percent jump in the Health Department’s budget after it lost three substantial grants. The town is also carrying the cost of its standoff over the MBTA Communities law, known as 3A: about $2.5 million in state funding it is not receiving because it has not adopted a compliant zoning district. Council President Jim Letterie, on why the town did not build pandemic aid into recurring costs: “We knew then what we had and we knew that we couldn’t overspend that.”
On 3A itself, the summer brought two developments. In late June the state ruled against Michael Walsh, the Winthrop housing activist who led opposition to compliance, finding substantial evidence of fraud in his petition drive, though a court later left him on the ballot for attorney general. On July 30 a Superior Court judge dismissed a private lawsuit challenging the state’s enforcement of the law. Letterie has said he is willing to vote for compliance.
Massport: $3 million a year, and a monitoring plan
Winthrop sits under Logan’s flight paths and receives a payment in lieu of taxes from Massport based on 192 acres of airport land, built on filled ocean, that is technically Winthrop. The old agreement, which ran from 2005 to 2025, started at $900,000 a year and reached $2.1 million this year. The new 15-year deal, approved 6 to 3 in June, starts at $3 million and rises 1 percent a year for a decade, then 1.5 percent, reaching about $3.5 million by 2041. In 2019 Massport separately gave $2.5 million over five years to a community foundation.
Federal rules bar airports from compensating communities for noise and pollution as such, which is why the payment is framed around land. Councillors Patrick Costigan, Suzanne Swope and Joseph Romano voted no; Costigan said the town “should be compensated for all of the pollution generated by Massport.” The town’s strategy now is data: it has 30 noise monitors and only 3 air monitors, and wants more of the latter at about $15,000 each, though officials concede an air monitor cannot tell a jet’s exhaust from Route 1A traffic. “I’d much rather be collecting the information ourselves, and be able to make the case,” Letterie said. Town Manager Tony Marino called Massport “more than fair in working with us.”
Taxis, cameras and a strategic plan
The council raised the in-town base taxi fare from $8 to $10 in August on a 6 to 3 vote, after Winthrop Taxi owner Shawn Cluen said the increase was “essential to stay in business in town,” citing lost drivers and a 29 percent rise in fuel and insurance costs. Letterie, who voted no, argued the town should not be setting prices at all: “The council should not be, at this point, in the taxi business.” John Morgan, a blind resident who depends on the service, opposed the increase because it would “hurt senior citizens and reduce driver tips.”
Two weeks later the town decided to keep its roughly six Flock license plate reader cameras, part of about two dozen public cameras, while adding officer training and quarterly audits, even as more than a dozen Massachusetts communities dropped the vendor. We have a separate story on that decision and what it means for Chelsea.
At a special meeting in late August the council also began work on a townwide strategic plan meant to set goals and projects for the next five to ten years.
Governor’s Park
The town’s largest housing complex is in open revolt against its board. Governor’s Park, 392 units in 11 buildings on the north side of town, was built in 1971 and needs roofs on most buildings, has nine failing elevators, and is fighting its heating systems and roads. Fees went up 10 percent this year, to $530 to $550 a month per unit, generating about $2.4 million a year. Residents led by Alena Kuzub are demanding the removal of six of the seven trustees, arguing the board “has not provided transparent proof” of where the money goes. The board’s election rules have for years let trustees name their own successors. Facility manager Dalibor Konchar’s defense was blunt: “In 2023, when I took over, this complex was already in bad shape,” and “You cannot do projects unless you have money.”
And a hardware store
Woodside ACE Hardware closed in August after 94 years. Founded in 1932, it passed from longtime owner Paul Levy, who retired in 2021, to Lauren Murphy, a longtime employee, whose health forced the closing. “It always saddens us greatly to see a local business close, especially after faithfully serving the community for many years,” said Diana Aliberti of the Chamber of Commerce. Jason Karge, who owns Drop Zone Brewery, offered the epitaph that applies to every small downtown on this side of the harbor: “It takes a long time to get an established business here.”
One more date: Winthrop Cares is hosting a barbecue on Sunday, September 27 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Pleasant Park Yacht Club for the families who lost their homes in the June fire.