Wednesday, October 29, 2025

 On Templeton Town website, annual town meeting May 2018, article 21 - fy2019 general fund operating budget $8,220,298.00 plus article 24 - supplementalfy2019 operating budget - $470,246.00, for a total fy19 general fund operating budget of $8,690,544.00

So as to be clear, this article 24, added money to the budgets of fire/EMS, police, insurance & benefits, highway, snow & ice, all of which are funded in general fund budget.
So May 2019, annual town meeting, article 26, general fund budget for fiscal year 20, $9,660,274.00;
A one-year increase in Templeton general fund budget of $999,730.00. Close enough to one million, what is $270.00 among friends?

 Over time, there have been some agreements signed that have been beneficial to other towns at the expense of Templeton residents. One of them signed on May 15, 2019 and is on town website was accounting agreement with Hubbardston, which had Templeton moving from a parttime assistant town accountant to fulltime and giving more money to fulltime town accountant, this resulted in lower accounting cost for Hubbardston and increased cost for Templeton. That agreement has ended but the cost increases from it are still with the town today. Perhaps not good idea to call out the current board when you signed off on that very bad agreement. You failed in financial fiduciary responsibility to Templeton. Especially after signing off on another agreement with a different town for dispatch service, agreeing to lower cost to one town while increasing costs to Templeton. This is easy to check, do not take my word, it is on your website. Can the town use more money to provide more things and/or better, yes, but it is very hard to ask for more with a history of making those bad deals for Templeton, which have placed a financial burden on residents that are still affecting things today. Again, failure in fiduciary responsibility to Templeton.