from The Gardner News:

Templeton highest paid employees.

First Name	Last Name	Department	Gross Wages
John	Driscoll	Light	$167,248.58
Derek	Hall	Police	$131,099.00
Thomas	Berry	Light	$129,692.43
Nicholas	Houston	Light	$120,814.87
Joseph	Parker	Light	$119,602.84
Tyler	Gearin	Light	$115,290.90
Michael	Bennett	Police	$114,151.69
Shane	Egan	Light	$114,134.78
Nicholas	Malnati	Police	$107,796.60
Eric	Smith	Police	$107,571.97
Kyle	Daniels	Fire	$107,067.45
John	White	Light	$106,806.24
Steven	Flis	Police	$104,427.40
Natan	Hagopian	Fire	$94,065.72
Scott	Schwinger	Water	$93,926.44
Robert	Szocik	DPW	$92,721.23
Jennifer	Belliveau	Light	$90,189.38
Jeffrey	Aldrich	Sewer	$89,513.85
Caleb	Matson	Police	$88,186.82
Andrew	Francis	Fire	$86,621.36

These are the top 20 earners in the town of Templeton in 2025.

 

FYI - the impact to the average single family home (SFH) relative to the FY’2026 tax rate if the following Overrides/amounts added to the tax levy had occurred, rounded up to the next penny. Some information to go with it, keep in the mind for FY’2026 that $1 on the tax rate raised $1,199,579 and the average SFH was valued at $378,285, and the tax rate was at $11.87 per thousand dollars of assessed value, making the average tax bill of a SFH around $4,490.24.

Below is an example of a 3 tiered approach to an override question.

Override Amount	Increase in Tax Rate ($/1000)	Increase in Tax Amount on the Average SFH	Result: Total Tax Amount on the Average SFH
$ 1,000,000	$ 0.83	$ 313.98	$ 4,804.22
$ 2,000,000	$ 1.67	$ 631.74	$ 5,121.98
$ 3,000,000	$ 2.50	$ 945.72	$ 5,435.96

The below link is to article on body camera and associated equipment grants.

https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmma.us18.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3Dd974c04ac20a7b83c0bdb194e%26id%3Dfdb1ce8b70%26e%3D97b45a867e&data=05%7C02%7C%7C266e23c44b784e9188ae08de810288c6%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C639090045098906859%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cuc6fUH0JQQqSzZcVNoVpXuhALpARm%2FmToMNwd7JuHA%3D&reserved=0

 

 What VADAR offers.

Provide better service to your constituents who can track, manage, and pay for utility services online

02

Access and analyze critical water and sewer usage and consumption data

03

Automatically produce integrated utility bills with combined receivable types (Water/ Sewer/ Stormwater/ Trash)

04

Add accounts, record meter readings, generate work order invoices, even track meter changes and “swap outs”

05

Reduce manual entry and the errors that come with it

06

And more

 

ATM - May 2025

Look at town meeting warrant, light commissioners elected salary.

Light $2550.00 each. Tempelton water commissioners elected salary $2550.00.

Sewer commissioners $3000.00 each

select board members $2550.00 each

Light commissioner and water commissioners are the same three people. Now, in MA, elected persons getting paid $5000.00 or more, are eligible to take part in town retirement system, which increases the cost of that (WCRR) Again, that is a Town cost and in the case of enterprise fund depts., which light & water are, those costs are passed on to rate payers. But the total WCRR is a line item in the town GF budget, the higher the cost, the more GF money goes there and is not available for other things.

This is simple fact information.

It is up to town meeting to vote those salaries/stipends, etc.

 So people, feelings on being asked for a 3-million-dollar override - increase in real estate taxes?

Using rounded numbers, every $1 increase in the tax rate adds roughly $1.1m in revenue. Adding $3 to the tax rate would add an additional $3.3m to the overall annual budget.

As an example of what this means, if a property was valued at $400k, the $3 increase would result in a $1,200 increase in that property's annual tax bill ($300 per quarterly billing).

Remember also that for the first year of an override , the additional money has to go to the stated purpose, then in following years, those extra dollars just get added to the pile on the table and can go towards anything. Roads in Templeton are much the same in other towns, terrible and even when paved, the important parts are left undone, drainage, water main, sidewalks, etc.