Williamstown Finance Committee Finalizes Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Proposal
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The tax bill of a median-priced single family home will go up by 8.45 percent in the year that begins July 1 under a spending plan approved by the Finance Committee on Wednesday night.
After more than a month of going through all proposed spending by the town and public schools and searching for places to trim the budget and adjust revenue estimates, the Fin Comm voted to send a series of fiscal articles to the May 19 annual town meeting for approval.
The panel also discussed how to appeal to town meeting members to reverse what Fin Comm members long have described as an anti-growth sentiment in town that keeps the tax base from expanding.
New growth in the tax base is generated by new construction or improvements to property that raise its value. A lack of new growth (the town projects 15 percent less revenue from new growth in fiscal year 2027 than it had in FY26) means that increased spending falls more heavily on current taxpayers.
The two largest spending articles on the draft warrant for the May meeting are the appropriations for general government spending and the assessment from the Mount Greylock Regional School District.
The former, which includes the Department of Public Works, the Williamstown Police and town hall staffing, is up by just 2.5 percent from the current fiscal year to FY27 — from $10.6 million to $10.9 million.
The latter, which pays for Williamstown Elementary School and the town's share of the middle-high school, is up 13.7 percent, from $14.8 million to $16.8 million.
There are multiple factors for the sharp increase, including the lack of reserve funds after the school district followed the advice of town officials in Lanesborough and Williamstown and spent down those accounts the last few years. And no one on the Williamstown Finance Committee Wednesday criticized the budget put forward by the Mount Greylock School Committee.
Instead the Fin Comm continued to point to what it believes is the real problem in town: stagnant growth.
"We looked at the chart," Chair Frederick Puddester said. "We're going to be in [Proposition 2 1/2] override territory soon, driven not by too much spending, frankly. I think we've underspent in a lot of areas in town. It's the fact that we're adverse to growth. One percent growth in our tax base will not support the level of services we demand and, I think, deserve.
"Until we come to grips with the fact that our aversion to growth means we can't fund the budgets we want to fund, we're going to continue to be in this position of 8 percent increases in taxes and, frankly, driving working-class people out of town because they can't afford to buy a house and pay the tax on the house they bought."
The committee asked Puddester to deliver a version of that message to town meeting.
His message likely will include a discussion of the town's levy capacity.
Under 1980's Prop 2 1/2, a Massachusetts community's ability to raise taxes is constrained in two ways. It cannot levy more than 2.5 percent of all the taxable property in the municipality, and it cannot increase taxes in a given year by more than 2.5 percent of the allowable levy in the previous year.
To surpass those limits, Williamstown would need a ballot vote for a levy override, something that current projections show will be on the table in just a couple of years.
In FY26, the current fiscal year, the town has an excess levy capacity of $2.7 million. That number drops to $1.2 million under the proposed FY27 budget, and, if trends continue, the excess capacity disappears as soon as FY29 under projections town hall staff prepared for the Finance Committee's Wednesday meeting.
In addition to the message on needing to grow the tax base, the Fin Comm on Wednesday talked about sending a signal on funding for the public schools.
Some local parents have raised concerns that, despite the more than 13 percent increase in spending for education in the FY27 budget, the town is not doing enough to fund K-12 education.
Fin Comm member Melissa Cragg offered a counterpoint.
"There were a few comments made last week and I've heard over the weeks about the amount that we need to invest in the kids," Cragg said. "I just want to turn that around and say 60 percent of the budget is in pure support of the kids.
"So every taxpayer in town, whether they have kids or not, is committing 60 percent of their tax bill as an investment in the kids of this town. I just wanted to make the point that that's not an inconsiderable amount."
Margo Neely, the only person on the nine-person panel to identify as the parent of school-aged children, stressed that the town needs to make it easy for parents to attend the May 19 town meeting.
"Last year, I got a babysitter to be at town meeting, and I asked for two months, 'Are there arrangements for people with kids?' and the tumbleweed came through … we found out about an hour before the meeting: 'Oh, yeah, there was someone here to watch the kids,' " Neely said. "I think families sometimes feel alienated because this information is not available to them. … I believe there's a plan in the works to potentially have something [for the 2026 annual town meeting].
"And I would be happy to go into the community and say, 'Drop your kids off, and we'll see you there."
In addition to the major townwide expenditures — like schools and snowplows — town meeting also sets the water and sewer rates for the coming fiscal year. Property owners who use those services will see a 6.8 percent increase in their rates under the warrant articles that cleared the Fin Comm on Wednesday.
All three cost sectors for users of those utilities — the water rate, sewer rate and assessment from the Hoosac Water Quality District — are rising from FY26 to FY27.
Puddester asserted that those increases are reasonable.
"The overall increase of all three — water, sewer, including Hoosac Water Quality District — is 6.8, and that's been flat for, what, three years?" Puddester said. "So it's a bigger hit than we hoped, but I think it's defensible given where it's been."
Puddester later clarified that while the town's water and sewer charges have been unchanged for three years, the HWQD assessment has gone up during the same period.
The Finance Committee Wednesday did get some good news on the local property tax front: The projected rate for the town's fire district is expected to drop from $1.24 per $1,000 of valuation to $1.15, a decrease of about 7 percent. That is because a drop in the appropriation to pay for the new fire station will offset proposed increases to the Fire Department's operational budget in FY27.
In other business Wednesday night, the Fin Comm passed on the opportunity to weigh in on two articles that could impact town finances: Article 21, a proposal to change the way the town posts public hearings that the town manager says could save between $5,000 and $10,000; and Article 22, a proposed amendment to the 41C property tax exemption that would lower raise the income and asset limits for residents 60 and over to participate in the program.
The committee did follow its practice of making advisory votes on grants recommended to town meeting by the Community Preservation Committee. Those grants are funded by a 2 percent surcharge on property tax bills (with the first $100,000 of valuation exempted) plus a partial match from the commonwealth.
The Finance Committee voted, 3-5, against recommending May's meeting approve a $20,000 grant to Sand Springs Pool and Recreation Center. The panel approved on votes of 6-2 recommending passage of the CPA grants of $25,000 to the town's Agricultural Commission and three historic preservation grants totaling $62,408. The other CPA articles on the town meeting warrant were recommended for passage by the Fin Common 8-0 votes.
Last spring, the Fin Comm recommended against town meeting passage of three CPA grants. All three passed by wide margins at the May meeting.
Tags: Finance Committee, fiscal 2027, williamstown_budget,
