HEATH — This year’s annual town meeting voters will be asked to approve level-funded operating budget increase, articles sought by the Mohawk Trail Regional School District to change the district agreement, and a resolution calling on the state to provide “wired” broadband service to meet the Internet needs of all residents.
The annual town meeting is Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. in the Heath School.
This year’s operating budget request, of $1.2 million, represents less than a 1 percent budget increase for town services. The operating assessment request from the Mohawk school district, of $795,523, represents a 3 percent increase.
Heath’s share of Mohawk’s capital assessment is about $7,000; also the town is asked to pay $108,142 as its assessment to the Franklin County Technical School.
Like all the Mohawk member towns, Heath will vote on three articles to change the eight-town regional agreement.
The first article on the warrant would change future votes on the regional agreement from requiring a unanimous vote to requiring a two-thirds majority approval of member towns. This article is not recommended by the town Finance Committee, Selectboard or by the town’s two Mohawk school committee representatives.
Selectboard Chairwoman Sheila Litchfield said the requirement for unanimous approval gives all member towns equal weight, and that there could be unintended consequences by changing the formula. For example, she said, if one sparsely populated district school depends on intra-district School Choice for a larger student enrollment, it would be possible that an article to eliminate intra-School Choice could be approved by two-thirds of the other towns, harming that school in one community.
“There are ups and downs constantly in these towns,” she said. “When you’re in a regional district, you work it all out together.”
The second article changes the agreement to allow Rowe to rejoin the district as a Grades 7 through 12 member town, like Hawley and Charlemont.
The third Mohawk article cleans up obsolete sections of the regional agreement and adds preschool to the assessment formula. These articles did not have any recommendation or opposition from town boards.
In other business, the town will be asked to establish an “Assessor Property Tax Mapping Stabilization Account,” with $30,000 to come from General Stabilization, to start a Geographic Information System (GIS) to meet state mapping standards.
The Selectboard and Finance Committee are recommending passage of a broadband resolution, calling on state officials to “instruct the Massachusetts Broadband Institute to work cooperatively with the towns and their agencies, including WiredWest, and to accept input and policy direction from the towns to jointly produce an actionable plan that is acceptable to our town by June 30, 2016.”
A petitioned article asks voters to rescind an article from May 2015, authorizing the town to borrow up to $4 million for the construction of a Public Safety Facility. At the time, the town had a contract with the state for a $2 million grant, approved under the former Gov. Deval Patrick administration. But in July, the contract was terminated by the current administration. Litchfield said local legislators resubmitted the $2 million request for the budget, but it was denied.
Currently that budget is being appealed. Litchfield said it’s “premature” to withdraw that authorization, because the town may not know until October if the state will allocate the money for the public safety complex. If the state does approve its share of funding, the authorization already in place would be needed for the town to accept it.