PAXTON — Voters will have the last say as the town heads toward the annual town meeting and election with a plan to keep town services in place.
But that plan depends on the voters agreeing to a Proposition 2½ override.
Information to help voters decide the town’s course of action include information sessions and a taped presentation and documents on the town website.
Town officials are generally in support of the override, even if reluctantly, agreeing that taxpayers need to contribute more if they want to retain the services they now enjoy, from police and fire to recreation and road maintenance.
Town Administrator Heather Munroe said “$1,740,000 is the amount of funds needed to fund the fiscal 2025 level services budget, beyond recurring revenue sources.”
The total town and school budget for Paxton, $16,789,423, needs the override, but if that fails, cuts would only impact the town side expenses, since the school budget is separate and not contingent upon the override.
The plan is that if the override fails, a second town budget with the cuts will kick in.
But the planned override number of $1.44 million is not a consensus, with the Finance Committee looking at a lower number, possibly $1 million or a littler higher, as more likely to pass.
Finance Committee members have generally supported $1 million or $1.15 million, Chair Mark Love said.
“A $1.44 million override has a much greater risk of failing, which not one of us wants,” Love said, preferring to add $50,000 each of 10 years to wean the town off use of so-called free cash to support the operating budget.
“Let’s get behind an override that will pass so we don’t have to make those cuts,” Love said.
Part of the plan is to avoid coming back to taxpayers year after year as costs increase.
What will get cut is up to voters, but a presentation April 8 showed where those reductions could come from.
Because the decision is complex and far-reaching, town officials have created information sessions and posted a video of the presentation to the town website to give voters a chance to digest the options.
The $1.44 million figure is on the town election ballot, given deadlines the Select Board faced to decide what number to present.
If a different number passes at town meeting, further votes may be needed to make the election number align with appropriations.
