Templeton town meeting votes a single dollar amount for each department, it is up to department heads to spend those dollars wisely. If town meeting wants more control, they would have to vote in a line item budget, which would require amending previous town meeting votes, changing a few policies and in the end, could cost money if there were an increase in special town meetings to transfer money around. Always the details that drive the train.
Templeton Watch
All material on this blog is directed to members of the general public and is not intended to be read by my fellow Board members, nor do I intend for any readers to convey such material directly or indirectly to my fellow Board members.
Saturday, August 23, 2025
Friday, August 15, 2025
Survey question; town bylaw / policy - no charge for public records. Yes or no?
Saturday, August 9, 2025
The overlay is raised by the assessors in the annual tax levy as a reserve for abatements and exemptions. MGL c. 59, secs. 23, 25 and 70A. Currently, there is a separate overlay reserve account for each fiscal year to cover property tax abatements and exemptions granted by the assessors or ordered by the Appellate Tax Board for just that fiscal year.
The Municipal Modernization Act creates a single overlay reserve to cover the costs of potential abatements or exemptions granted by the assessors or ordered by the Appellate Tax Board for any fiscal year. With a single overlay reserve, municipalities may now avoid deficits which formerly occurred when amounts abated or exempted exceeded the balance in the overlay account for that particular year. The single overlay takes effect on November 7, 2016. No local action is needed. As of that date, all balances in all overlay accounts will be merged into a single overlay account, the balance for which may be charged for abatements or exemptions granted for any fiscal year. Local assessors, however, will still need to review, as part of each year’s budget and tax rate process, whether an additional amount needs to be raised that year for addition to the single overlay account.
DOR Code | Municipality | Fiscal Year | Overlay Appropriation | Total Levy | Overlay as a % of Total Levy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
294 | Templeton | 2021 | 313,292 | 12,276,184 | 2.55% |
294 | Templeton | 2022 | 234,466 | 12,740,880 | 1.84% |
294 | Templeton | 2023 | 225,774 | 12,935,986 | 1.75% |
294 | Templeton | 2024 | 143,641 | 13,526,437 | 1.06% |
294 | Templeton | 2025 | 140,749 | 14,086,053 | 1.00% |
Friday, August 8, 2025
Town meeting hypothetical article;
BARRE — Voters in Barre handily rejected a proposed $540,000 Proposition 2½ override in a townwide election Tuesday, Aug. 5.
According to unofficial results the town posted online, the measure failed 798-154.
There were 952 ballots cast, which represents about a fifth of the town’s 4,369 registered voters.
The vote, which town officials said would lead to cuts in services including the police, comes after Town Meeting voters in June, by a 133-67 vote, approved the expenditures that would have flowed from a “yes” vote.
The Telegram & Gazette has reached out to members of the town’s three-person Board of Selectmen for comment.
At Town Meeting, officials said the override, which would have raised property taxes by $255 a year on the median $359,000 home in town, was needed to avoid cuts in services.
The town’s police chief, James Sabourin — who was recently appointed interim town administrator — said the cuts would amount to an 11% decrease in his budget; the fire chief told residents he expected the town to lose its fire inspector.
Sabourin told the T&G Aug. 6 that he expects the cuts to lead to the loss of the town’s school resource officer, as well as about a $17,000 cut from his overtime budget.
That will hinder the ability to backfill shifts should officers be out sick or on vacation, he said, and may lead to situations in which the department only has one officer on at times overnight.
Monday, July 28, 2025
The Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center has launched a new website, making it easier for veterans to access services, according to a community announcement.
The Barre Savings Charitable Foundation provided funding for the website, which was developed by Gardner-based InConcert Web Solutions. The site is now fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and accessible via computer, tablet and phone. It also features an active veterans event calendar, downloadable housing applications and easily navigable service pages.
The MVOC has served homeless and high-risk veterans throughout North Central Massachusetts for over 40 years. Its previous website had remained unchanged for over a decade due to funding restrictions and capacity restraints.
Saturday, July 26, 2025
The State Ethics Commission has issued a formal advisory opinion that explains how the state’s conflict-of-interest law (Ch. 268A) applies to municipal employees who solicit donations or engage in fundraising on behalf of the municipality where the persons and entities approached for a donation may have business dealings with the municipality or its agencies or employees.
In general, sections 3 and 23(b)(2) of Chapter 268A prohibit public employees from soliciting anything of substantial value from anyone with whom the public employee has official business dealings.
As discussed in the advisory opinion (EC-COI-12), however, a municipal employee may solicit donations to a municipal entity from persons and entities with whom he, or other municipal employees, has or expects to have official dealings, consistent with Chapter 268A, provided that all of the following are true:
1. The solicitation is carried out in accordance with Chapter 44, Section 53A, which authorizes acceptance of gifts by municipal employees on behalf of the municipality, and, by implication, authorizes the solicitation of gifts.
2. The solicitation is not made in circumstances that are inherently coercive because the person or entity solicited may be directly and significantly affected by a pending or anticipated decision of the same municipality.
3. No overt pressure is exerted in connection with any such solicitation.
4. The municipality and its employees apply objective standards in all dealings with persons and entities who are solicited and do not favor those who give or disfavor those who do not.
5. The municipal employee principally responsible for making such solicitations discloses publicly and in writing the names of those solicited, pursuant to Chapter 268A, Section 23(b)(3).