{"id":47421,"date":"2024-03-07T15:01:45","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T15:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=47421"},"modified":"2024-03-07T15:01:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T15:01:45","slug":"paxton-looking-at-override-to-avoid-deep-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2024\/03\/07\/paxton-looking-at-override-to-avoid-deep-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Paxton looking at override to avoid deep cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Ken Cleveland<\/em>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/em><\/div>\n

PAXTON \u2014 Override: It has been talked about for several years as the town wrestled with increasing costs.<\/p>\n

But this may be the year, with financial reality possibly being a choice between drastic cuts in town services or an operating override, that voters have to consider it.<\/p>\n

The Select Board discussed the town’s finances at its Feb. 21 meeting, as the Finance Committee also gears up for further review of town spending.<\/p>\n

But Select Board Finance Committee Chair Mark Love agreed the measure was all but inevitable.<\/p>\n

Although numbers are not final yet, Select Board Chair Julia Pingitore said, \u201cWe know enough to realize that this year, we are not going to be able to find enough one-time revenue along with budget cuts to make the ends meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve all seen this coming for a while,\u201d member Kirk Huehls said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough when you live in a small town that doesn\u2019t have a lot of commercial revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing we\u2019ve got to decide is if we meet this year\u2019s shortfall,\u201d member Carol Riches said of the override amount, or if the town chooses a number that will provide for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we can do is get the information out there and hope that they agree our services are worth keeping, because if we don\u2019t get an override, we will see cuts across the board we\u2019ve never seen before,\u201d Riches said.<\/p>\n

Also bringing her perspective as Paxton\u2019s former town administrator, Riches stressed the need to get information out \u201cso an informed, educated decision can be made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huehls added that \u201cit\u2019s important not to do a Band-Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you talk about taxes going up, it\u2019s scary, especially for those on a fixed income. The alternative this year is scarier,\u201d Pingitore said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good that we\u2019re on the same page,\u201d Love said, adding it was unfortunate the situation was that the boards agreed on the need for an override.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t possibly cut our way to a balanced budget; there\u2019s no way to make that happen,\u201d Love said, noting the Finance Committee had work ahead of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got to be go big or go home; it\u2019s got to be substantial,\u201d Love said, adding that the figures driving the concerns did not include half a million dollars in \u201ccritical asks\u201d before the Capital Improvements Planning Committee. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to add that into the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting a lot of work in the weeks until voters tackle the budget at the May 6 annual town meeting and potentially the override at the May 13 town election, Love said, \u201cI don\u2019t see how we could miss having some type of override. We want that as a last resort at the smallest possible number.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love said that last year the budget was balanced by using $86,000 from the stabilization fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t do that; there\u2019s not enough in there to avert an override this year,\u201d Love said.<\/p>\n

Pingitore said voters need to attend the May 6 town meeting, where the budget will be decided, and then the May 13 election that would need to approve any override that meeting voters approved using to balance the budget.<\/p>\n

Voters should prepare to participate both days, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been trying to avoid a substantial override for longer than I have been on the board,\u201d Pingitore said. \u201cThe last overrides passed were in 2018 and were small: $100,000 for the operating budget and $300,000 for the Wachusett budget. At that time, we recommended only enough to meet the need for that year. We have been doing the equivalent of living paycheck to paycheck, and not putting away for our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuts, she said, \u201cwould be substantial and would have a devastating effect on the level of services provided to our residents. We would be looking at a much different town in terms of services offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, we have no choice this year but to recommend a sizable override,\u201d she continued. \u201cGiven what we are seeing, we should look to pass an override that will not just sustain us for this year, and put us in substantially similar positions next year, and the year after, but one that will serve as a budget correction and end our reliance on one-time revenues so that we can plan for and stabilize our future as a town.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ken Cleveland Landmark Correspondent PAXTON \u2014 Override: It has been talked about for several years as the town wrestled with increasing costs. But this may be the year, with financial reality possibly being a choice between drastic cuts in town services or an operating override, that voters have to consider it. The Select Board […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}