The Natick Select Board on Thursday night met for less than an hour and decided by a 5-0 count to ask voters at the March 25 election whether they support a $7M budget override. Thursday’s meeting followed a much longer one on Wednesday night that went over various options that might cut how much to ask for.
Before settling on $7M, different Board members had weighed in with support for higher ($8M) and lower ($6M) figures.
“We’re just asking an awful lot from our taxpayers,” said Board member Linda Wollschlager, who preferred a “more palatable” $6M override but compromised as did others to vote for the $7M option. Board member Kristen Pope would go with the $8M override in hopes that the town would then not have to go back and ask for more later. Board member Bruce Evans was thinking between $6M and $6.5M, while fellow Board members Rich Sidney and Chair Kathryn Coughlin gravitated to $6.5M or $7M.
Board members wrestled mightily with their decision, with several citing uncertainty about the economy and the very real concerns about affordability locally. Coughlin said a better job could have been done articulating the impact of a smaller or larger impact on people’s wallets, and the actual percentage of the town’s overall roughly $200M budget that different override numbers would represent. Town Administrator Jamie Errickson said his team looked at many different scenarios and settled on an $8M override being needed to cause the most minimal impact on town and school operations until FY2030 when the town expects some big expenses to go away.
“Really anything below $8M is going to be additional tightness, additional challenge, additional uncertainty moving forward…,” he said. “Where the impact will be is to be determined” beyond FY26.
The actual ballot question will read: “Shall the Town of Natick be allowed to assess an additional $7 million in real estate and personal property taxes for the purposes of funding the capital and operating budgets of the Town and of the public schools for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025?”
The discussion in town for months has focused on a proposed override in the $7M to $8M range to address a “structural deficit” based on revenue not keeping pace with expenses, though $8M is the number most often referenced, including on the town’s override resources page on its website.
But community angst about that number, which would tack more than $500 dollars onto property tax bills for those with homes of median value (already skyrocketing as the result of higher property assessments), convinced Board members to go with a lower number in an effort to improve chances of the ballot question being approved.
Board members emphasized to the public that even with an approved override, the town and schools will need to tighten their belts on top of various cuts already made.
Natick last approved an override in 2008 for fiscal year 2009, and it was for $3.9M.
Coming up at next week’s Select Board meeting: An agenda item on the Board’s future financial commitments, as it looks beyond the override.
An override forum, which will mainly consist of the public being allowed to ask questions, is slated for March 12 at 7pm at Morse Institute Library.
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Overrides are not the solution to increasing costs.
Rather each department coming up with cuts is the solution.
With increasing economics, including housing, food, energy, the residents should not shoulder the burdens. Economics in each department are the answers.
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Do not place added burdens on the taxpayers