Taxpayers will be asked to pay an approximate 4.6% tax increase next year to fund an approximate 4.1% tax increase to fund School and Town budgets, plus an approximate 0.5% tax increase to fund an override for a new North Acton fire station as discussed by the Acton Leadership Group (ALG) at the October 15th meeting. These numbers are still a preliminary first look and still need to be voted on by the Board of Selectmen, the School Boards, and the Finance Committee. They represent the first realistic look at the numbers after more than a month of work by the individual boards and the ALG. These numbers are what will be presented to taxpayers at the State of the Town meeting on Novmber 13th which will be held at the Junior High School. Taxpayers are encouraged to provide feedback at that meeting.

The present ALG FY09 Budget working model is a revenue based model at this time, since the revenue picture for Acton is described as good compared to the budget difficulties of recent years. The working model estimates a 5% budget increase for Town and School, not yet based on needs at this time, but based on good revenue projections. The actual budget process will lead to review of needs for each budget and determe the final budget increases.

The 5.0% initial revenue based budget increases were arrived at to balance with the potential of very strong revenues. It is based on a tax increase to the full limit of 2.5% to maximize Acton revenes while avoiding an automatic override vote. This year the tax increase includes another approximate 1.25% tax increase to make up for not having taxed to the full 2.5% last year. With full taxing to 2.5% this year plus picking up the 1.25% from last year budgets would have to go up 5% or else there would be a large surplus. The possibility of a smaller tax increase was not discussed at this meeting.

The capital override plan is presently for the North Acton Fire Station at $3.1M (or less), the only item ready to be budgeted for the capital override at this time. Sewers might come on with about $400k for a design study, but it is most likely that will be delayed until next year. The School capital plan is not yet approved by the School Committee, but could end up as capitalized and part of the school budget at about $300k per year and remain within the 2.5% limit.

The financial state of the Town of Acton is good. As discussed at the ALG meeting, there is $5M in NESWC which is becoming available, as well as $1.5M in free cash. With $6.5M in available cash, some taxpayers may well ask why Acton needs new taxes. This is the kind of discussion that should take place at the State of the Town Meeting.

Readers of ActonForum.com who have questions about the budget or about the possible tax increase should plan to attned the State of the Town Meeting, which is designed to get voter feedback to the various boards. The public is encouraged to attend the meeting and to raise issues that often can not be debated at Town Meeting due to time limitations. In addition, the Acton boards can be contacted directly with questions and suggestions via email by visiting the Acton Town website https://www.acton-ma.gov. Acton has done a good job of making conveniently available most of the information its citizens need in order to understand Acton Town Government.

-------------------------------------------

COMMENTS? ADDITIONS? SUBTRACTIONS? Send your comments for publication or for information to comments@ActonForum.com. All submissions must be signed, but names may be withheld upon request. Submissions may be posted to this website, rejected, or returned for corrections or revisions.