Hannah Edelheit
The Belmont Select Board’s outlook for the town budget is nothing short of biblical. During a nearly two-hour public input session last month, Board Chair Roy Epstein warned that the town could face “fiscal Armageddon,” if voters fail to pass an override in April.
“If you don’t have an override, the extra money you are able to get through the normal Prop 2½ process doesn’t get you back to where you are today,” Epstein said. “You’ll be way behind, so that implies draconic cuts.”
State law generally restricts property tax increases to 2.5 percent every year. Residents must vote to approve an override to raise taxes above that limit.
The town is still deciding the exact dollar figure to put forward for the override, but according to the most recent budget figures, Belmont is facing a $7.2 million budget gap in the next fiscal year, climbing to about $9.2 million in two years.
The shortfall would be larger, but the town made up the difference with about $2.5 million a year in so-called “free cash” — one-time funds, coming from state or federal aid, unused revenue, and other sources. The town used an unprecedented $10.2 million in free cash to balance the budget this year, but the Warrant Committee warns that’s not sustainable, since extra money from Covid-related factors, like federal aid, are coming to an end.
Warrant Committee Chair Geoffrey Lubien presented the committee’s findings to residents at the Sept. 28 meeting, which showed that expenses are increasing faster than revenue.
“This is a trend that we’ve been dealing with for about the last seven years, but it has been escalating in size,” Lubien said.
The committee’s annual report highlighted labor costs driven by collective bargaining, full-time employee growth at the school department, rapid growth of out-of-district special education costs, health care expenditures, and escalating pension fund payments.
Lubien was part of a financial task force that recommended 15 ways to cut expenses and increase revenue. He said the town adopted 12, but emphasized that an override is needed to meet ballooning expenses.
Town Residents Weigh In
About 60 people joined the meeting in person and virtually. Some were not sympathetic to the pleas for an override.
“It’s always just, you know, keep raising taxes on the residents,” said Allison Lenk, Town Meeting Member (Precinct 8). She was concerned about the impact that a tax increase would have on long-term residents.
“We know we’re not meeting all the residents’ needs in terms of people who have lived here for their whole life and are being forced to move out of their homes. Some are multi-generational,” she said.
Brittany Ray said she’s a younger renter in her 30s, and worries about the impact an override could have on her future.
“I’m trying to actively buy a house in Belmont. With the property tax increases, it’s becoming a more and more unrealistic … goal,” she said.
Ray said she sees many businesses closing, and thinks the town needs to do more to attract new businesses.
Board Vice Chair Elizabeth Dionne said that zoning regulations are partly to blame for the business climate.
“I call it the ‘Frankenstein zoning bylaw,’ because we just kept plastering things on it, and it’s kind of sinking under its own weight,” she said.
Dionne said the Special Town Meeting in November will look at changing restaurant regulations, in particular, so it doesn’t take an entire year to open a new eatery in Belmont.
Several residents seemed to support an override, citing the need for better funding of municipal services and education.
“The elementary schools are using textbooks that are not in print anymore, which is fine as long as the textbook sticks together,” said Mary Lewis, Town Meeting Member (Precinct 1).
Aaron Pikcilingis, Town Meeting Member (Precinct 6), said kicking the problem down the road doesn’t solve the problem.
“When we invest in things now, we save money in the long term,” he said.
History of Overrides and Debt Exclusions
Since 1990, Belmont has passed four overrides totaling $12 million, and rejected five totaling $15 million, according to the Warrant Committee.
But some residents seem weary of tax increases, due to recent debt exclusions.
“At the risk of making myself the most unpopular person here, I think we also need to consider what I’m going to call the third leg of this equation. And that is the property taxpayer,” said Judith Feinleib, Town Meeting Member (Precinct 6).
She argued there’s been a huge increase in property taxes due to three major projects: the recently voter-approved debt exclusions, totaling $357 million, to fund the new middle/high school complex, library, and ice skating rink.
Residents vote on both debt exclusions and overrides, but they are different forms of tax increases. Overrides are a permanent increase to property taxes, while debt exclusions are temporary measures, which expire once the financing bond is paid off, though that could take decades.
“I don’t see how taxpayers are going to manage this [override]. I myself would be pressed,” she said.
However, the Select Board’s message to residents is fairly straightforward.
“We need an override now. Whatever it is, it will be a big number,” said Dionne. “But I don’t see the town surviving as an intact community with the services we all want if we don’t figure out our revenue problem.”
The Select Board must approve the override figure by Feb. 26, 2024, and voters go to the polls to decide on April 2.
See the town’s most recent revenue projections, presented at the Oct. 12 budget summit.
