COLRAIN — While facing a 6.9% increase in the draft budget for fiscal year 2027, members of the Finance Committee instructed Town Administrator Diana Parsons to look for any places the budget can be trimmed.
Last week, the committee, alongside the Selectboard, reviewed budget requests from the Board of Assessors, town clerk and tax collector/treasurer, as well as the proposed education budget. While town officials said they believe they can cover this year’s $2.8 million Mohawk Trail Regional School District assessment, the town will hit its levy limit and need an override in the coming years.
“It’s possible if we use all of the levy capacity, we could do it. … Maybe for one year we can cover it,” Parsons said. “We can’t afford to continue like this.”
Colrain’s FY27 assessment to the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, including operating and capital costs, will be $272,126, or 10.42%, higher than FY26.
Parsons said the town brings in approximately $45,000 in new growth each year, which can be applied to the tax levy. While the budget is not finalized for FY27, she believes the draft $5.65 million budget will be just under the levy limit.
“We’re caught between a rock and a hard place right now,” Parsons said. “We’re right against the levy is essentially where we are.”
Douglas MacLeay, serving on the Finance Committee, said that unless the state changes the formula for how it funds schools, the district will need to make serious cuts, including closing and consolidating schools, to reduce the budget.
“We’re getting screwed over by the state once again,” he said. “You’ve gotta consolidate; there’s no way around it.”
In addition to the school budget, the Finance Committee reviewed a $743 increase in the town clerk’s budget, a $7,904 increase to the Assessing Department’s budget for software upgrades and the creation of a new part-time assistant tax collector/treasurer position for $20,000 to help Treasurer/Tax Collector Paula Harrison with her duties, with the intention of transitioning that person into the full-time role in a few years when Harrison retires. The role will be paid for by reducing the administrative assistant’s role.
“It would be nice if there was an assistant in the office that could be flexible, so the office wouldn’t have to be closed when I’m sick or on vacation, and also for succession planning,” Harrison said. “So when I retire, there will be someone in the office who is trained. It will be a seamless transition.”
The Finance Committee and Selectboard will continue reviewing the budget in the coming weeks in preparation to present it to voters at Annual Town Meeting.