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.
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.