by John Osborn ·
Friday, March 20, 2026
After months of budget negotiations that began with a projected deficit of $1.6 million, the Select Board on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve a fiscal 2027 budget of $36,731,872 that includes a Proposition 2½ override of $135,370—a fraction of what once seemed necessary and well below the $396,754 the Finance Committee had recommended as recently as February.
A Proposition 2½ override is a voter-approved exception to the state law that limits annual property tax increases to 2.5% plus an allowance for new construction. Without it, the town cannot raise taxes beyond that cap to fund the approved budget.
The override, which requires a majority vote at the May 5 Town Election, would add approximately $64 to the annual tax bill for a home assessed at the town average of roughly $918,000.
To reach the dramatically lower override request, the Finance Committee and board worked through the $1.6 million deficit item by item, cutting $271,185 from town and school budgets. Lower enrollment and teacher retirements allowed the schools to submit a budget more than $600,000 lower than expected, and health insurance premiums increased by 6.34% rather than the 15% increase the town had budgeted.
The Select Board’s own cuts, totaling $271,185, included the following:
- moving $80,000 for a police cruiser from the operating budget to the capital fund; see story below
- reducing the ambulance enterprise fund subsidy by $62,185
- cutting an additional $50,000 from the school budget
- deferring $25,000 in other post-employment benefits funding to hold it at last year’s level
- reducing the Nashoba Valley Regional Dispatch District assessment by $14,000
- trimming $30,000 from the public buildings supplies budget, and
- shifting $10,000 in building department salary to a revolving account.
The override itself covers the following six items the board chose to protect rather than cut:
- a $10,700 finance receptionist position created last year
- $10,000 for the tree warden
- $8,838 to maintain Board of Health hours
- $30,000 to strengthen the salary range for a community and economic development director the town is recruiting
- $38,000 for school supplies
- $34,568 for supplemental intervention services for students at Hildreth Elementary School.
To round out the override amount, $3,264 was added to fully fund the amount budgeted for employee health insurance and to reduce the deficit to zero.
A late development pushed the override figure upward from the roughly $101,000 the board had hoped to achieve: The school district learned it would not receive a $34,568 Title I federal grant it had counted on to pay for supplemental intervention services for students at Hildreth Elementary School. Rather than cut those services, the board folded the amount into the override request. If voters reject the override, the town would need to find cuts to match, and those intervention services would be among the items at risk.
Board member Eve Wittenberg, who said she had initially hoped the town could get to zero, told colleagues she had become convinced the override was justified after working through every line item. “I feel very comfortable with this budget,” she said, “acknowledging that it’s a reasonably small override request for the town.”
Board member Ahmet Corapcioglu echoed that sentiment, saying the board had looked carefully at whether avoiding an override was possible before concluding that further cuts would begin to affect services.
The board also voted to place a separate $800,000 debt exclusion on the May 5 ballot to fund replacement of the Eldridge Road culvert.