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Local Aid and Finance Override season opens early for fiscal 2009
With the cost of running local government growing faster than projected revenues again next year, cities and towns across the state are finding themselves facing another year of unpopular options for balancing municipal and school budgets, including asking local voters to approve property tax increases through override and exclusion votes.
Voters in the central Massachusetts town of Holland opened the 2008 override season on Feb. 5, the day of the state’s party primary election, by rejecting both parts of a two-tier set of override questions that would have increased taxes by as much as $565,000 to maintain municipal and school services.
Voters in Hudson, on the other hand, approved a debt exclusion question on the same day to provide an estimated $4.4 million to renovate and expand the town’s senior center.
Other votes slated for this spring include a $3.9 million override vote in Natick on March 25 to help pay for town and school operating budgets over the next two years. Randolph voters will cast ballots in April on three override questions for schools, police and fire services totaling $6.1 million (following unsuccessful override attempts in 2006 and 2007). In Newton, the City Council is weighing a request from the mayor to seek an override of $23.9 million.
Budget gaps have been a chronic problem for cities and towns over the past several years due largely to unavoidable growth in health care and utility and fuel costs and to slowing growth in local revenues and municipal aid payments from the state. Local tax votes are traditionally the last option at the local level, taken only after squeezing spending plans and drawing down reserves to minimum levels.
Last spring more than 100 cities and towns went to the ballot seeking voter approval for override and exclusion property tax questions, including 76 communities with override questions totaling almost $120 million for fiscal 2008 operating budgets.
While it is still early in the override and exclusion season for 2008, the MMA is tracking more than 30 cities and towns that have scheduled a ballot question or are considering one. February and March are generally busy months for budget planning locally, with the bulk of ballot questions coming in April, May and June. Last year, almost three quarters of override questions fell in this three-month span.
Local Aid and Finance Override season opens early for fiscal 2009
Override season opens early for fiscal 2009
With the cost of running local government growing faster than projected revenues again next year, cities and towns across the state are finding themselves facing another year of unpopular options for balancing municipal and school budgets, including asking local voters to approve property tax increases through override and exclusion votes.
Voters in the central Massachusetts town of Holland opened the 2008 override season on Feb. 5, the day of the state’s party primary election, by rejecting both parts of a two-tier set of override questions that would have increased taxes by as much as $565,000 to maintain municipal and school services.
Voters in Hudson, on the other hand, approved a debt exclusion question on the same day to provide an estimated $4.4 million to renovate and expand the town’s senior center.
Other votes slated for this spring include a $3.9 million override vote in Natick on March 25 to help pay for town and school operating budgets over the next two years. Randolph voters will cast ballots in April on three override questions for schools, police and fire services totaling $6.1 million (following unsuccessful override attempts in 2006 and 2007). In Newton, the City Council is weighing a request from the mayor to seek an override of $23.9 million.
Budget gaps have been a chronic problem for cities and towns over the past several years due largely to unavoidable growth in health care and utility and fuel costs and to slowing growth in local revenues and municipal aid payments from the state. Local tax votes are traditionally the last option at the local level, taken only after squeezing spending plans and drawing down reserves to minimum levels.
Last spring more than 100 cities and towns went to the ballot seeking voter approval for override and exclusion property tax questions, including 76 communities with override questions totaling almost $120 million for fiscal 2008 operating budgets.
While it is still early in the override and exclusion season for 2008, the MMA is tracking more than 30 cities and towns that have scheduled a ballot question or are considering one. February and March are generally busy months for budget planning locally, with the bulk of ballot questions coming in April, May and June. Last year, almost three quarters of override questions fell in this three-month span.
Written by MMA Legislative Director John Robertson
