Fresh off a nearly 3-hour meeting on Wednesday night to discuss a potential override, the Natick Select Board plans to vote on Thursday night about putting an override question on the March 25 ballot. Exactly what shape that question and the proposed override would take is what’s to be determined at the meeting.
(For background, see the town of Natick’s override resources and our past coverage of override news.)
Board Chair Kathryn Coughlin said toward the end of Wednesday’s meeting that “I don’t see a way forward without an override. So to be determined is the amount, how it’s structured, what it looks like, and that’s what we’ll vote on tomorrow [Thursday].”
Board member Linda Wollschlager said later in the meeting that the Board needs to make calculations based on conversations they’ve had about “what might be a likely number for people to support” at the ballot box. She’d like to see the override number go down without affecting key budget numbers.
Wednesday’s meeting covered a laundry list of issues related to town finances and potential strategies to erase a revenue shortfall for the roughly $200M budget that a proposed $8M (or possibly another figure) override could address. Some 65% to 70% of the overall budget expenses, when shared services are included, comes from schools, per Town Administrator Jamie Errickson (though Natick Public Schools administrator Matt Gillis countered that the schools’ portion of shared expenses is lower than the town has suggested).
Topics addressed included means-tested senior tax exemptions or other tax breaks for seniors that might be adopted. “Part of the Select Board discussions have talked about, in the context of an override, what kinds of commitments can we make to the town… Various ideas have come up from the community about things that we could commit to do as a matter of trust between the Board, and town administration and the voters, and that will be part of going agenda items. ”
Please help to support your independent local news source by:
- Sharing news tips: natickreport@gmail.com
- Encouraging local businesses to advertise on our site
- Contributing to support our work if you can. This is our actual job.
Other topics covered included stabilization account strategies, such as not funding or underfunding them, and pulling from them to offset a requested override amount. Board member Bruce Evans said he’d like to see “snipping” of a significant amount here, though doesn’t want to see “draconian” cuts. The Board’s Rich Sidney expressed wariness about using stabilization funds based on concerns about economic volatility that could affect state aid, federal grants, and other expected monies.
Reflecting on the idea of asking for $4M now in an override and coming back later to ask for $4M more, Board member Kristen Pope said “I think it’s important that we be up front about what we need in total now.”
Board members expressed optimism that new growth (from commercial entities like an expanding MathWorks to major home renovations and rebuilds) will rise beyond numbers in current conservative forecasts, so discussion of different possible override scenarios was had in light of that. Former Select Board member and current chair of the town’s Economic Development Committee Paul Joseph did warn that new growth from the housing and retail developments in Natick Center could still take a while to come to fruition based on everything from high leasing costs to a parking shortage.
Other topics discussed included use of free cash, which refers to collected revenue that exceeds expectations, but isn’t easy to project from year to year. Natick seeks to limit its use for operating expenses, even though it has gotten into the habit of not doing so. Natick has had $7.8M in free cash certified by the state this time around.
Natick has consistently stayed with a single tax rate for residents and commercial entities, though the Board has received a proposal from a resident to consider splitting the rate so that commercial taxpayers would pay a bigger share than they do now (the total percentage of commercial taxes paid has been in decline). This isn’t something the town could immediately change even if it wanted to, but could be up for consideration toward the end of the year as town officials commit to reviewing overall operations in the wake of any override vote.
Coughlin asked Board members about thoughts on having no override, and Evans said based on the evening’s discussion the consensus was that “the impact of no override is catastrophic to the budget…there’s no getting around it, it affects both the schools and town.” Cuts have already been made to the town and school budgets, and more would need to be made, he said, defending the town’s contention that it is a lean organization. “No override does a disservice to the town,” he said.
To be continued on Thursday, Feb. 13 at 6pm at Town Hall and online.
YES, sign me up for Natick Report’s weekday email newsletter
