Mary Byrne
After months of anticipation — and for the first time in nine years — voters passed a Proposition 2 ½ override Tuesday with 50% of registered voters turning out to the polls.
A second question about the Board of Assessors was too close to call as of press time.
Discussion of the override has dominated local discourse since November. The Select Board formalized the $8.4 million override request in January.
According to unofficial election results, the Yes vote carried the day Tuesday, 5,120 to 4,050, or 56% to 44%.
Of 18,336 registered Belmont voters, 9,230 cast ballots Tuesday, according to Town Clerk Ellen O’Brien Cushman.
“We’re so grateful to the voters and hundreds of volunteers that worked so hard for months,” said Erin Rowland, manager for the Yes campaign for the override. “We’re very hopeful for the future of our community. We’re grateful for the vote of confidence in our town and our community and that we can move forward.”
In 2021, Belmont defeated a proposed $6.4 million override, with 56% against and 44% in favor, in an election where 47% of voters went to the polls. The last override Belmont voters approved was in 2015. There have been three debt exclusions since the 2015 vote, with voters approving the high school, the library, and the skating rink.
Tim Duncan, spokesperson for the No campaign, said the results Tuesday night were disappointing.
“We got a lot of votes; it was very close,” he said. “We were fighting an uphill battle, and we’ll hang in there. The sun will come out tomorrow, at least … after the storm.”
Long, Involved Discussion
In late January, the Select Board voted to request an $8.4 million Proposition 2½ override on April 2. Prior to Tuesday’s vote, Belmont voters have faced nine override votes since 1980: four have passed, totaling $12 million. Five, totaling $15 million, have failed.
Town officials said without the override, Belmont would have faced a $6.5 million budget gap in the next fiscal year, which would continue to grow over the following two fiscal years as anticipated expenses outpace expected revenue.
Select Board Chair Roy Epstein previously said the proposed override would last three to six years before more intervention is needed.
According to town officials, when the voters defeated the 2021 override, the town used one-time funding sources, such as the American Rescue Plan Act and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, to avoid substantial budget cuts.
In 2024, override opponents disputed that narrative, arguing a small portion of the money from those one-time sources was used to support the operating budget.
In the months before the vote on Tuesday, town officials determined three potential paths forward: No override, an override to provide existing services but nothing further, and a higher number providing funds to address school curriculum, growing special education expenses, and additional capital expenses on the town side.
Rowland, who was elected Tuesday to serve as a Town Meeting member in Precinct 6, said she knew this was a difficult decision for Belmont voters.
“We’re one Belmont. We know this was hard for some of our residents,” Rowland said. “I personally am very committed to trying to work to implement more comprehensive senior tax relief.”
Question 2: Too Close to Call
With just eight votes difference as of late Tuesday night, Question 2, which sought to change the board of assessors from an elected body to an appointed one, was too close to call.
According to unofficial election results, support for the change held a razor-thin lead with 4,218 votes to 4,210. These totals, however, do not include military and overseas votes, hand count votes (ballots that were unable to be read by the voting machine), and write-in ballots.
If passed by voters, the member seeking re-election on that same date, Patrick Murphy, would remain in his seat until the position is appointed by the Select Board, according to Town Clerk Ellen O’Brien Cushman.
Any registered voter can call for a recount of local election results by filing a petition with the town clerk within 10 days of the election, according to Cushman. A minimum of 10 registered voters per precinct must sign the petition, which would be 80 signatures in Belmont. Petition forms must be picked up in person from the town clerk. No threshold is required for a recount to be called.
Assessors determine the value of a town’s real and personal property to calculate fiscal year tax rates. When elected, they must pass state training. According to the town, the assessors appraise about 8,000 parcels in Belmont.
In January, Town Meeting members voted 156 – 87 to put the question on the ballot. The question began as a citizen petition from Precinct 8 member Angus Abercrombie, who made an unsuccessful run for a School Committee seat this week.
At the time, Select Board Vice Chair Elizabeth Dionne said the proposed move would make Belmont’s town government more “transparent, efficient, and cooperative.”
Board of Assessors Chair Robert Reardon, meanwhile, called the effort “a solution looking for a problem.”
