HEATH — Voters will be presented with a 7.2% increase to the town’s operating budget, a $995,297 operating assessment for the Mohawk Trail Regional School District and a resolution on single-payer health care at Annual Town Meeting.
The meeting, taking place on Saturday, May 9, at 9 a.m. at the Jacobs Road Municipal Center, will see voters decide on 22 warrant articles.
Article 3, which is the town’s operating budget for fiscal year 2027, is supported by both the Selectboard and the Finance Committee. The budget includes $13,001 for the town nurse to maintain the position, as Town Nurse Claire Rabbitt is retiring this spring.
One of the larger line item increases in the budget is health insurance for town employees, which jumped by $29,442, or 25.17%, from the current fiscal year to a total of $146,432.
The budget for town services sits at $1.92 million, an increase over the FY26 budget of $1.79 million. Including education, Heath’s total FY27 budget comes to $3.11 million, $995,297 of which is Mohawk Trail’s operating assessment. Franklin Tech’s operating assessment is $175,613.
Article 16 proposes dissolving two revolving funds that were focused on building use and maintenance for the Jacobs Road Municipal Center and Community Hall. The revolving funds were $30,000 and $15,000, respectively.
“In order to be more transparent with people about the cost of our buildings, [the Selectboard] has proposed to dissolve both of those revolving funds,” Town Administrator Mia Francesconi said. “We’ve upped all of our maintenance and utility lines because of that, and to try to make it more clear what our buildings cost, including special projects. … We want to make it very clear to people what that costs and have that be part of our operating budget, rather than it kind of sitting in a revolving fund.”
Article 9 asks voters whether the town will appropriate $30,500 to replace the overhead doors at the shared building for the Fire and Highway departments. Francesconi said this is necessary as these are the original doors for the multi-use building, and one of the doors on the Fire Department’s side doesn’t work.
“The firefighters, when they go out on a call, they have to manually lift [the door] with a chain in order to get the fire trucks out,” Francesconi said.
If Article 11 is approved, $60,000 would be transferred from free cash to the Broadband Note Account to pay the loan that Heath took out for all the physical equipment related to its broadband network, according to Francesconi. This includes modems, optical network terminals, routers and fiber-optic cables.
Article 21 is a citizen’s petition, which entails a nonbinding resolution in support of “An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts” (S.860/H.1405). If approved by voters, it would signal Heath’s support of the state legislation, which would be communicated to state representatives and senators.
According to the bill summary, the proposal being reviewed by state legislators “would transition the commonwealth to a single-payer health care system by removing profit-driven health insurance companies as the barrier between patients and providers, and instead allow the government to reimburse health care providers directly.”
Other warrant articles include:
- Article 12 would use $7,500 from the Assessors Stabilization Account to buy upgraded assessment software.
- Article 13 would transfer $145,000 from free cash into four stabilization accounts, with $55,000 going into General Stabilization, $10,000 each going into IT Stabilization and Audit Stabilization, and $70,000 going into Equipment Stabilization.
- Article 20 asks voters to consider whether Heath should amend its bylaws for posting Annual Town Meeting and town election information. The bylaw currently reads that Annual Town Meetings and elections take place at Sawyer Hall and the Jacobs Road Municipal Center. If approved, the reference to Sawyer Hall would be removed.
The full Annual Town Meeting warrant can be viewed at townofheath.org/files/FINAL_SIGNED_2026_ATM-ATE_WARRANT.
