By Sharron Luttrell
Town and school officials will host an informational meeting about their proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budgets and $1.1 million Proposition 2 ½ override request on Wednesday, April 29.
The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. in the upper Town Hall.
Mendon voters will decide at Annual Town Meeting May 12 on both the $27.7 million town operating budget and the override, which will help fund the schools. If the override is approved, it will then go to voters as a ballot question at the town election on May 19.
Upton voters will face a $2.45 million override for the schools at their town meeting May 7 and at the polls on May 12. Mendon’s share of the requested $48.3 million school budget is smaller than Upton’s because it has fewer students in the district. Additionally, Mendon officials shaved roughly $560,000 from the override request through its stabilization fund and trimmed expenses elsewhere in the budget.
“The use of stabilization was to stabilize operations but also to stabilize the tax rate for residents because putting the whole ask on the override was untenable to the (Select) Board from a household affordability perspective,” Town Administrator Jeremy Stull said.
If approved, the override will add $453.19 to the annual tax bill for a single-family home worth $664,496 – the average assessed value in Mendon. That equates to $68.20 per $100,000 of assessed property value per year.
Mendon and Upton are not alone in asking voters to override Proposition 2 ½. The number of communities seeking overrides has risen significantly over the past three years. Last year, 54 cities and towns put override questions to voters, according to the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
This is due in large part to rising inflation, double-digit increases in health insurance premiums and declining state aid. Since 2002, state aid to Massachusetts cities and towns has fallen by 25% overall when adjusted for inflation according to the MMA report, A Perfect Storm.
“It’s not a matter of mismanagement or excess. It’s a structural issue we’re facing,” Stull told a joint meeting of the Finance Committee and Select Board on April 8.
With a few exceptions, Mendon is requesting a mostly level-service budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. It includes:
- Two new firefighters at $163,661. This will bring the Fire Department closer to its goal of adding four additional firefighters to the department over the next three years. The firefighters’ union agreed to accept a 1% cost-of-living increase in its latest contract in exchange for the new hires.
- A 32-hour per week administrative assistant for the Police Department. This hire would allow the Fire Department’s administrative assistant to move from their current location at the police station to the fire station. Currently the fire station is locked up when firefighters respond to calls because nobody is on site.
- A 32-hour per week assistant town administrator and a 16-hour per week benefits coordinator. These positions will replace the 24-hour per week human resources coordinator position.
The budget information meeting on Wednesday will be available to stream on Teams as well as in person in the upper meeting room at Mendon Town Hall.
Separate information meetings on the school budget will be held Monday, April 27 at the Miscoe Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. and Tuesday, April 28 at the Nipmuc Regional High School’s professional development center at 7 p.m. in person or via Zoom.
