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You are here: Home / Archives for Breaking News

Whitman preps for June 11 TM

June 5, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

WHITMAN – When Whitman convenes its special Town Meeting at 6 p.m., Wednesday, June 11, voters will see a warrant with only three articles – a revised Article 2 budget, and two articles dealing with union contracts for the police and fire departments, if they have been finalized by then.
The Select Board in a meeting lasting just over nine minutes, discussed an update on the budget and Town Meeting.
“It’s a very short warrant,” said Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, who described the union contract articles as placeholders as of the May 27 meeting, before the board voted to approve the warrant and voted in support of Town Clerk Dawn Varley’s request to appoint checkers for the June 11 Town Meeting.
Select Board member Shawn Kain said that the budget working group has been fine-tuning “the numbers that we’ve been sharing all along,” since the override failed at the ballot box during the May 17 Town Election.
“There’s nothing out of the ordinary, there’s no big change, just the final numbers after they’ve been fine-tuned,” Kain said.
Finance Committee Chair Kathleen Ottina had been “kept in the loop” and Carter recently reached out to Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak to advise him of an “assessment cut” – a decrease in what had been proposed – of $1,064,765.
“In order to make up the deficit, the district is asked to cut a little over $1 million,” Kain said. “On the town side, we’re asked to cut a little bit under $1 million. What that looks like for a percentage of the budget moving forward is a 4.01 percent increase to the school and a 1.62 percent increase [if all things were bundled together on the town side]. Just to give some comparison and a bit more comparison on that … if you took the new revenue that we have this year, for fiscal ’26, compared to fiscal ’25, it’s about $830,000 … of that $781,000 is going to the schools.”
Kain said the budget group wrestled with it several ways, and they feel they have come up with a fair compromise.
“The schools need to look at their budget real good,” Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said. “I don’t want to put this town in danger by eliminating staff – especially fire and police. … The whole town is important, we serve, what? 17,000 people?”
DPW office
building
Carter also provided a brief progress report on the DPW building.
During an appearance by Whitman Food Pantry officers at the May 27 meeting, a question was asked about the square footage of the building, she explained. The pantry, operated in partnership with the St. Vincent dePaul Society, has expressed interest in using the building now serving as the DPW’s administrative offices.
“I sent a letter off to town counsel, after last week’s meeting, just to see what the steps would be if we want to move forward with either selling or leasing the property,” Carter said, noting that she had received a list of things to do, had already begun and would provide more information at the next meeting.
On the main floor, that area is 1,980 square feet.
“There is [also] the full basement, “ she said, which puts the total building space at 3,960 square feet.
Salvucci offered some advice for the Food Pantry staff: they should go checkout “all aspects of the pantry building to make sure it fits their needs.
“I hate to have them get out of one place and get into that place [and encounter problems] or it’s still not big enough, or it’s not handicapped accessible or something like that” Salvucci said. ”I think they have to take a real good look at it.”
Any improvements needed to bring it up to any code requirements involved “would be on them,” he argued.
“The town hasn’t made any decisions yet on any direction,” Carter said.
In other business, the Select Board voted to appoint Sharon LoPiccolo as the town’s temporary treasurer/collector.
.

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

School choice renewed at W-H

May 29, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

Despite some concerns voiced about doing so before a budget has been approved, the School Committee approved continuing school choice for the 2025-26 school year because of a state deadline requirement.
In the end, continued participation in school choice was approved on Wednesday, May 21 by a vote of 8-2.
“From a purely financial standpoint – well, maybe not purely financial – what I’m wondering is if, as we in the coming weeks are discussing potential cuts to our district services, whether that would be a disincentive for students to be coming in to us and an incentive for more of our students to leave,” said School Committee member Kara Moser.
“Right now, my main concern iss we do not have a budget,” said Vice Chair Hillary Kniffen, who said she generally opposes school choice.
Massachusetts mandates that each school district is open to school choice unless they vote to opt out. Whitman’s program isn’t grade-specific, but is based on where space is available.
“Unless we close to school choice, any student from any neighboring community can come to our school,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said, later clarifying that students from any town in the state could attend W-H, so long as they provide their own transportation.
“If we decide to close to all students or close to certain amount of students (grade level-wise, we can do that at School Committee meeting, but that doesn’t mean that a student in W-H can’t go to any other school that’s open to school choice,” he said.
Currently, there are 76 students attending W-H through school choice and there are 50 students from Whitman and Hanson attending school in other public school districts.
Between 2012 and 2015 years, however, W-H’s school choice numbers had increased, and then became stagnant, and now are in decline,
“We’re not getting the kids we were getting in 2012,” Szymaniak said, “We’re just not. … When we publicly come out and say we’re in a budget crisis, people are choosing not to come.”
The number of students accepted at WH, is based on recommendations from the building principals of how many spaces they have available, with sending districts paying a larger portion of costs for students on individualized education plans (IEPs) and picks up the cost for severe IEP situations requiring out-of-district placement.
Per-pupil school choice students cost $5,000 and W-H per-pupil cost is $17,500. Despite the apparent cost differential, Szymaniak said there are expenses, including administrative costs at work there. School choice students bring in funds to help the budget particularly in covering W-H’s own cost of students leaving the district under school choice.
If W-H were to close to school choice students, those already attending W-H are permitted to stay until they graduate and, Szymaniak said, W-H is always open to students who wish to graduate with their class should their families move to neighboring towns.
“When they come here, they are our students,” Chair Beth Stafford said, underscoring Szymaniak’s statement that the district cannot deny the right of a school choice student due to behavior or absences when they come to W-H.
The father of an autistic child said his son would benefit from attending W-H, which he said offers “one of the best special education programs on the entire South Shore.”

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

Towns soundly reject override

May 22, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com
When Hanson Moderator Sean Kealy paused before the Town Meeting cast their votes on the Proposition 2.5 override to conduct an informal poll as to how many people had not decided how they would vote on the issue before walking in, the answer seemed to surprise him. Only three people had raised their hands,
A lop-sided vote of 230-118 placed a $3 million override to fund all town departments, as well as the school budget, on the town’s annual Town Election ballot on Saturday, May 17. But the May 17 vote was just as emphatic – in the opposite direction – as by a 1,172 to 741 margin the voters’ “no” to an override was unmistakable.
Perhaps an even more interesting – if puzzling – statistic is the 1,935 blanks received in the override vote on Hanson ballots while there were only six ballots with no answer to that question in Whitman.
Voters in Whitman approved placing the question on the ballot by a 148-66 margin, but defeated the one-year, $2 million override to fund town departments as well as the schools, in a consolidated budget by a vote of 1,678 to 677.
Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak, hosting a groundbreaking for the town’s new middle school on Monday [See related story, page 1], was philosophical about the election result.
“I appreciate the hard work that was exhibited in the dual Finance Committee/Select Board meetings and I appreciated the invite to be part of the process,” he said. “It’s disappointing, but the taxpayers chose what they chose.”
He said he was not certain if the issue would be discussed at the School Committee’s reorganization meeting Wednesday, May 21.
“We have to find out where the towns are at,” he said, but he said he didn’t know whether the School Committee will move off its assessment figure at this point.
Still, Szymaniak said he expects there will be fruitful discussions about what the towns can afford and how they can move forward.
On the better news of the new school, Szymaniak said the project is “substantially under budget,” and they intend to stay that way. School officials hope to take possession of the building in December 2026 with an opening for current grade six to eight students in February 2027 and a full opening for the 2027-28 school year.
Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski, also attending the WMS groundbreaking, said the Select Board will also be discussing what they’ll do next at upcoming meetings. The Select Board voted on Tuesday, May 20 to schedule a special Town Meeting for 6 p.m., Wednesday, June 11 to take up Article 2 – the fiscal 2026 budget – once more.
“I was hopeful [on passage] for a while,” Kowalski said, “But, then, when I voted at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, they had a lot of people go through and so I figured it was probably going to be voted down. I’m disappointed. It’s hard to say that you love the schools, and you love your police and you love your fire … but you don’t want to pay for it.”
“It’s our job, as a Select Board to have a budget for the town,” Hanson Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said Monday. “When it became clear that, given the school assessment and other rising costs, we were going to have to severely cut services – essential services, including the library, transfer station, police and fire, we felt that it was our responsibility to give voters a choice about whether the cuts should be made or the taxes should be increased. The voters have spoken, so we will do the best we can with the budget that we can, like we always do, and we will continue to look for additional sources of revenue.”
The results, in Hanson anyway, seemed to signal a preference for separating out the town departments from the school district budget. It was a potential solution several Town Meeting voters preferred, voicing that preference during discussion of the article.
At the Hanson Middle School polling place, outside the “no electioneering” perimeter that debate was silently going on, TJ Roffey – who ultimately out-polled incumbent Stephen Cloutman by 55 (905-850) votes to replace him on that panel – stood with his campaign sign next to “Yes” on the override sign-holders. Cloutman stood on the opposite side of the school’s driveway, chatting with a lone anti-override sign-holder. Incumbent Glen J. DiGravio won re-election and bragging rights as Hanson’s top vote-getter in the race with 907 votes.
“I think a lot of people have override first and foremost in their mind,” said Cloutman, who felt that the override might pass. “It’ll be interesting to see. … You know, I wish there was a way it was divided – police and fire separated from the school system that they could handle those separately, instead of just in one pot.”
“I think there is some sentiment in town to see changes in the School Committee and the school budget process, so I think people are open to voting for someone who’s not an incumbent,” Roffey said. “There’s definitely an anti-override sentiment. …Unfortunately, the town’s in a situation where the revenue and expenses don’t match and the choices are either find more money or offer less.”
Neither Roffey nor Cloutman wanted to see services cut, but expressed sympathy toward people on fixed budgets as the cost of living goes up.
Whitman’s stretch of South Avenue sidewalk in front of the Dunkin’ Donuts opposite Town Hall was likewise crowded with “Yes” sign-holders putting in a final plug for the $2 million over one year contingency override.

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

Override decision is Saturday

May 15, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

As both towns approved overrides to move on to the May 17 ballots, there are still wrinkles in the situation that could complicate things, especially if the override fails in Hanson.
Whitman and Hanson also vote on candidates for town offics when polls open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Whitman and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Hanson.
“I think it’s important that the people in both towns understand that we, as a School Committee have authority over the school budget,” Vice Chair Hillary Kniffen said during the Wednesday, May 7 School Committee meeting. “In Hanson, they voted a contingency budget.”
Kniffen had said at the Monday, May 5 Town Meeting that, if the override failed to pass, that did not mean the cuts quoted by the Hanson Finance Committee for all departments would apply to the School Committee budget.
“I was told, ‘Then, your budget just isn’t passed,’” she said. “I didn’t make a thing of it.” She added that Finance Chair Kevin Sullivan reaffirmed that was the town’s position.
“I guess my point is, if they overrides fail, the way the budget lines were in Hanson was that [there would be a predetermined amount to be cut from each department to balance the budget,]” she said. “It’s important that we all understand that doesn’t mean that the School Department is making any cuts. We are back at another Town Meeting. We are the ones who have the final say on our assessment and on our budget.”
Kniffen said that left it on the School Committee’s doorstep to get the word out and work to pass the override.
“I think there is a misunderstanding … perhaps because [in Hanson] there were two numbers voted,” she said. “There are people who think that the School Department will lose $940,000, not understanding that then it goes to Whitman and there’s a cost associated there as well.”
She said it is an important point to let folks know.
Member Kara Moser said that $940,000 would directly impact WHRSD because they do not have the power to take any of that amount out of the vocational school budgets, referring to South Shore Tech in Hanover , Norfolk County Agricultural Vocational in Walpole and Bristol County Agricultural Vocational high schools. One student attends Bristol County Agricultural at a cost of between $28,000 to $30,000 plus transportation.
“That sounds like there might be some reason to talk to Mr. Szymaniak about signing off on everybody going where they want,” said Committee member Stephanie Blackman.
“You can’t – that’s FAPE,” Kniffen said. “We would be violating FAPE – it’s the law. FAPE means Free Access to Public Education. Every student in the state of Massachusetts is entitled to a public education that they see suits and fits their needs. We don’t have the authority to do that, we would be hit with a lawsuit in a second.
“It’s a ton of money… It’s beyond us,” she said. “It’s at the state level. How are you letting a school charge this much for tuition?”
Comment from the vocational schools re per student costs and why there is such a difference.
According to Foundation Budget Rate data from the DESE Office of School Finance, part of the reason vocational schools’ per-pupil costs are higher is because they have to pay their teachers more, particularly in shop classrooms.
“Since ed reform, the state funding formula has always assumed that vocational education is more expensive than traditional education,” SST Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said Monday. “Based on FY26 foundation budget rates, the state expects the minimum per pupil cost for a vocational student to be around $5,500 more per pupil [than a non-vocational high school student]. In addition, our equipment and capital [expenses] are a larger share of our budget. When we give our towns an assessment, we assess them for any operating debt and capital all in one number.”
School equipment is expensive, and teachers’ salary scale at vocational schools must be reflective of industry pay, according to Hickey. For example, he said that first year vocational teachers are hired at a higher salary than first-year academic teachers.
“In a tight labor market we need to be mindful of industry wage levels in order to recruit skilled professionals to teach in our vocational areas,” Hickey said.
“There are students who are not built for a traditional school like this, and for us to say no to those students would be doing them a disservice,” Kniffen said.
Ferro said he recalled from back when he was a principal there were specific towns that tried to put caps on students that were allowed to go to vocational [schools], and there were towns that simply did not let vocational schools have access to the middle schools when they were in eighth grade.
“That has been challenged,” he said. “There are DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) regulations about what we can and cannot do and what we have to do in order to [admit] students in the member towns attend.”
There are only nine agricultural-vocational schools in the state and students had been limited to attend one in their region, but four or five years ago that changed to permit students who feel they are uniquely qualified for a program offered only at a specific vocational school. Sending towns are required to fund transportation for those students.
Agricultural-Vocational schools operate under different regulations, Hickey said, echoing Ferro’s point on acceptance regulations.
“In no way do I want to limit the opportunities for students to attend vocational schools,” Moser said. “I certainly wouldn’t argue that a student with a disability should not get the services that they are fully and legally entitled to. Charter schools I could have a longer conversation about, but for a certain population, I think that it is an appropriate [avenue]. My argument is more about the fact that when town boards propose a budget cut for the school department, which is technically not in their prevue that that cut is not coming out of any of those places [but] is coming out of the majority of the experience of our student population who are housed in the buildings in our two towns. It’s not equitably distributed,”
Rosemary Hill said fellow Committee member Christopher Marks’ illustration of what cuts would mean – a child doing a math problem and scribbling it out in frustration, told if a pair, was not given another piece of paper, but would have to take the limited supplies because the budget fell short.
“That was a small thing in a bigger picture of lots of small things,” she said. “Just fund us to be competitive.
Chair Beth Stafford argues that the school district is it’s own municipality in the way it had to fund faculty and staff benefits and salaries that town-connected districts fund in the town’s budget.
Regional vocational schools budget the same way.
During the Public Comment period, Erin O’Donnell, of 207 Waltham St., in Hanson, spoke about the override being only level-funded.
“We need to plan for the future and increase and staff programs in the schools,” she said, noting cuts to the budget over the past 20 to 30 years, which has been detrimental to students. “But, first we have to pass the override.”
In other business, Business Manager Stephen Marshall reported that a short-term borrowing of 10 months was needed, maturing in March 2026, until the final two district audits for fiscal 2023 and 2024 are complete, as two potential bidders for the initial borrowing for Whitman Middle School by state-qualified bonds backed out because the audits were incomplete. He said those audits are expected to be completed before the borrowing matures, when the district can again seek state-qualified bonds.
The committee voted to approve that borrowing to pay costs for the WMS project under MA General Laws Ch 70B.
Committee member Dawn Byers asked what the risk was.
“It feels really heavy,” she said.
“There’s no greater risk here than the bond,” Marshall said. “We need it to borrow anyway. The risk is if our audits are not complete and we’re not able to go back out to borrow in addition [the building could stop]. That’s always the risk.”
“It’s a bridge loan,” said Committee member Glen DiGravio. “It’s a loan until we get a loan.”
The 2022 audit delayed the following two, because that was the year the district was recovering from the data breach of 2022.
Marshall outlined the third-quarter revenue report as well.
The 2024 year-ending excess & deficiency balance through March 31 was $616,288.77.
Fiscal 2025 end-of-year budget line transfers will be calculated and ready for votes at the next full School Committee meeting.
Chapter 70 aid is expected to be $261,516 greater than what ha been budgeted, Marshall said, but added that Charter School reimbursement is expected to be $120,203 less that forecast.
“Every time they give us money, they quickly take it away,” he said. Regional transportation reimbursement is still unknown.
“There is some fiscal 2026 budget workings that include the FY 25 transportation numbers, so as the budget went through the House and Senate, and pulling some of the money out of the “millionaire’s tax” some [lawmakers] have asked for it to help us in this year, and some have asked for it to be fully [budgeted] for ’26,” Marshall said. “We still don’t know how that’s going to land.”
Medicare reimbursement is expected to be $95,000 less than budgeted.
“When you add those things up, we’re still within our budget,” he said. “I don’t expect us to be under budget on revenue.”

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

Whitman OK’s $2M override plan

May 8, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

WHITMAN – An elderly woman unable to afford false teeth was on the minds of voters on both sides of the Proposition 2.5 override discussion at Town Meeting, on Monday, May 5.
In the end, the 191 registered voters, approved by a 148-66 margin, a one-year, $2 million override to fund town departments as well as the schools, in a consolidated budget – and, in part, to ensure programs and services senior citizens depend on continue, even as those on fixed incomes expressed their worry about affording the override.
Those who voted yes explained why that woman’s plight was as much on their minds as it was for those who voted no because they also lived on fixed incomes, or were allies of those with limited means. Others agreed with her.
“In the grand scheme of things, $2 million doesn’t sound like a lot,” said Ed Winnett of Raynor Avenue. “But I can tell you, when you go to the Council on Aging and you become a senior and you’re on a fixed income, that little amount makes a big difference.”
He recalled one woman at the override forum held there, who rose to say, “‘I have no teeth,’ and she showed us she has no teeth, because she can’t afford it,” he recalled, asking people to consider the lot of others. “Today you may not see it, but I guarantee you. When you hit that age, you’re going to feel the impact.”
School Committee member and former Finance Committee member, Rosemary Hill thanked Winett for his compassion for others and agreed the town should be careful of how money is spent, as she recalled the discussion at the override forum at the Council on Aging.
“What would be the impact if we don’t pass the override and we make these cuts?” she said. “It may not lead to the savings that you think. … Cutting the school budget could risk a financial spiral of sorts.”
She pointed to the $90,000 increase, to $1.5-plus million, that Whitman residents have to pay toward Charter School reimbursements – an increase not approved by our budget, but is a state requirement –which have increased 200 percent over the past seven years. State charter school aid the district receives is temporary, she said.
“[Local public schools at a cost of $18,000 per student] are the best value in education,” Hill said. “We are the most effective, most accountable and most connected to the community, and yet we’re being the ones being told to cut again. When we cut programs, families look elsewhere and every time a student leaves, we send more money out of district.”
The potential cost of cuts to other departments were also pointed out.
Retiree Rick Anderson, who also has 35 years’ experience in municipal finance, said the current crisis was predictable and, for the most part, preventable.
“We stood before you last year and said the override presented at that time was not the best patch forward,” he said of his role as FinCom chair at the 2024 Town Meeting. “More long-term projections and involvement from all town departments was needed to present a financial plan for the future.”
Town Meeting listened and agreed, he said, adding he has watched that collaboration and cooperation happening over the past eight months.
“We are at a time when we have to make the difficult decision to raise our levy capacity to maintain the basic services we all depend upon,” Anderson said, urging support of the override in the best interests of the town’s future.
Some voters asked what guarantee there was that the town would not return in the near future for more overrides or about specific tax impacts on their homes.
Select Board member Justin Evans said that, while projections show a potential gap of $400,000 to $500,000 in fiscal 2027, and “the following year would look a little bit worse,” the town is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel between retirement of the Plymouth County retirement assessment payoff ahead that would open up a lot o capacity in the general fund after 2030.
“It may be necessary for another override to close those 2028-29 years, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel and we’re getting some good news on some of the capital projects as well,” he said.
Finance Chair Kathleen Ottina said there were several compelling reasons why her committee recommended that plan as a way to instill trust with the voters, who would know what to expect from a yes vote and while they know what revenue will be for fiscal 2026, projections for 2027 and 2028 are just that.
Carter explained the $372.66 a year on the average home assessed at $496,000.
Another voter said that change – of about 77 cents per $1,000 of assessed value – would be used to help all town departments including the Council on Aging.
“It’s also going to help pay for the fire department with ambulances, so if you’re an older person, you want those things,” she said. “If you don’t have such a large, expensive home it’s not going to be as dramatic a change for you, but you still want t have those services [the Council on Aging and the police and the fire [departments] and the ambulances – its seems like that’s important for everyone.”
“It’s not just a school override,” said Marshall Ottina of Lazell Street. “Look at the impact across the board – we’re looking at fire shifts lost, police shifts lost, services lost at the Council on Aging, the library, veterans’ service officer – there’s something that impacts almost everyone in this room, probably multiple departments impact everyone in this room.”
Resident John Galvin, however, cautioned that without seeking a three-year override that was originally proposed, is “not sustainable.”
“I’m in favor of an override, but we need an override that gets the job done,” he said. “This one doesn’t.”
Budget worksheets with detailed breakdowns of each department’s budget were made available, but Town Moderator Michael Seele stressed that the meeting would be voting on the budget and it’s 35 line lines contained in the warrant itself. He also announced his intention to complete work on all 53 articles before adjourning the Town Meeting, and once again achieved that goal.
With the passage of the override article by a vote of 148-68, putting it before the voters at the Saturday, May 17 annual election, Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter moved to take articles 18 and 19 out of order, which allowed the transfer of $200,000 to Plymouth County Retirement [see below] and $140,000 to the town’s OPEB unfunded liability, which were directly related to budget lines in Article 2, to which they moved on, followed by the rest of the articles.
Had the override article failed, Carter said, she was ready to move to take non-financial articles 9 through 14 and 49 through 51 out of order for votes before moving to adjourn Town Meeting until June 11.
Ottina said the budget document was the result of a year of collaboration and communication among all town government parties, beginning last August, with discussions about the potential need for an override to bridge a deficit of just under $2 million spanning one year. The FinCom made that recommendation following an hour-long discussion on March 25.
“The reason for voting the more conservative, one-year override is we believed it maintained transparency and accountability with the Fiscal 2026 funding sources solidly in place, and would have a higher chance of being passed by the voters,” Ottina said.
After all those discussions and three public forums, there were still questions on the minds of some voters, while others voiced their opinions for or against it. But before that happened, former Selectman Brian Bezanson moved to use a secret paper ballot for the vote.
“There may be plenty of people here who may be for it or against it, but they feel intimidated and there are empty seats here, probably for that reason,” Bezanson said in making his motion. A standing counted vote yielded a vote of 134 to 80, against a secret ballot despite the fact that some who eventually voted in favor of the override, also voted against a secret ballot.
Town officials outlined the work ahead and thate they hoped to see during debate at the outset of the Town Meeting.
“For a lot of years … I couldn’t stand the Finance Committee,” Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said, looking back on his years of service on both the School Committee and Select Board. “They always seemed to be in the way of how I thought the town should spend its money. The sea change this year, with this Finance Committee and with this Board of Selectmen, they worked together in concert to come up with a plan that we think is going to be the best for the town – or at least give the voters the opportunity to vote what they think is best for the town.
“That’s different,” he said. “It’s different. It’s a good feeling, to know there’s commonality there.”
Kowalski also noted that, through diligent work, the per-pupil budgeting at W-H had climbed from the bottom 10 percent among state school districts in per-pupil spending, to the bottom 20 percent.
He reminded the Town Meeting that a survey of residents as part of the work behind the Madden report on funding town departments sustainably ad determining which departments Whitman residents valued, three – including public schools, public safety and public works – scored high. This year, senior services may have joined them.
You’ll see that we are low, in terms of [our] tax rate, compared to surrounding towns, Kowalski said.
“Hope we keep that in mind,” he said, while reminding them that Whitman voters have always been generous when times were tough.
“This town does it when it has to,” he said. “And that’s the spirit I would like to end with today.”
Carter told the meeting that every vote they cast Monday, and at the ballot box on Saturday, May 17, will help to guide the town’s path forward.
She outlined the new policy for free cash the town is now using.
Besides its traditional use as a source of funding for capital improvements; 10 percent of free cash will now be allocated to the capital stabilization fund; 10 percent of the remaining balance will be allocated to the general stabilization fund to build town reserves; an annual minimum transfer from free cash of $200,000 to Article 2, line 35: Plymouth County Retirement Expense until that unfunded liability is paid in full (within five to seven years); and a minimum of $140,000 annually to Article 2, line 34: other Post-employment Benefits unfunded liability.
The 2025 warrant articles were taken in the order of – following Article 1 and prior year articles – Article 8, the override article, out of order.
“I encourage respectful discussion and active participation as we work together to ensure that Whitman remains a great place to live,” Carter said.
Whitman has 14,497 residents and 11,997 voters, with only 266 residents in attendance – about 2.2 percent – and only 1,771 residents voted in last year’s town election – about 14.75 percent.
“The major decisions we make as a town, both our annual Town Meeting and our annual Town Election are made by a relatively small number of voters,” Carter said, encouraging residents to vote May 17.

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

Whitman outlines override impact

May 1, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor


WHITMAN – Residents voiced their questions and concerns about the cost of a Proposition 2.5 override during an informational forum on Wednesday, April 16 in Town Hall Auditorium.
But there was a bit of good news toward the end the meeting, as School Committee and Whitman Middle School Building Committee Chair Beth Stafford announced that the Whitman Middle School building project is now on time – and $15 million under budget. The $135 million project now stands at $120 million.
“That was due a lot to the fact that when we were first getting estimates, it was during COVID, when prices were high, and when the bids came in … not too long ago, everything was under budget,” she said. “It doesn’t matter with the tariffs because this is a signed contract, and we do have contingency money still sitting in there.”
The state will take some of the $15 million because they are reimbursing the project, but it is still multi-million savings for the town.
The impact of the pending project, approved by voters last year, was among the looming project bills coming due over the next few years, which had concerned former Selectman Randy LaMattina.
After criticizing the current Select Board, LaMattina, the former chair of the Budget Override Evaluation Committee that worked with consultant John Madden in 2019, raised the issue of other debts coming due in the next few years.
“The friction of just putting numbers up – of ‘it might be 8 [public safety jobs lost]’ – I don’t think anybody, unless you’ve been in my position, knows the tension and the friction,” LaMattina, a former firefighter said. “These are people that, when we’re three weeks away from Town Meeting [don’t know if their job is on the line].”
He opposes the override because, “It doesn’t fix it.” LaMattina pointed to this year’s $2 million override, saying it will take another $2 million override in fiscal 2027 and another $1 million override in fiscal 2028.
“The plan should have been to fix it,” he said, arguing that at the last joint Select Board/FinCom meeting both public safety chiefs and the superintendent of schools all left the meeting thinking a three-year override was the way the override would go.
“And then a recommending body unanimously votes that they only want a one-year override,” he said. “It seems like they’re now setting policy and that’s not the way it should be. You were elected to be leaders of the town, not make the decisions, but lead in the right direction.”
Down to numbers
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, responding to firefighters’ questions about specific potential layoff numbers, said one position will likely be cut, with another to be reduced in hours. For the Police Department, one full-time position and one reduction may be needed there, if the override fails. Two, possibly three positions could be cut at the DPW, she said.
She said she would be giving department heads leeway to make cuts they need to in the best interests of their departments.
Carter also said the debt has been bonded on the DPW project, with the first year of that debt was already figured into the taxes for fiscal 2025. The tax impact for debt exclusion items – the police station, the new DPW building, the high school and the debt on the new WMS building – the difference in fiscal 2025 the difference for the average home valued at $495,736.78 [based on fiscal 2025 valuations] would see an increase of $248.12 without the override. From fiscal 2026-27 the increase without an override would be about $14.25 for the debt exclusions and from 2027-28 it would be an additional $20.17.
The override would cost $372.66 more for that $495,736.78-valued home. Full tax impact information is available on the town website.
“What’s not in these numbers is the remainder of the WMS project, so they’re going out for $30 million, but there will still be $40 million left to bond,” she said. The town will put forward a debt exclusion next year.”
The police station will be rolling off the debt exclusion impact in fiscal 2027. The real debt for the new South Shore Tech building won’t hit until fiscal 2029.
The Select Board in Whitman recently voted to raise the levy limit by $2 million over one year to address the deficit for the coming year only, with the tax impact on an average single-family home valued at $495,736.78 increasing by $375.64 per year, or $31.30 per month. A full breakdown of the impact at various levels of home values as well as comparisons to tax rates in surrounding communities is available on the town’s website Whitman-ma.gov.
“When the Select Board is proposing an override, that doesn’t mean that we’re selling an override,” Kain said. We’re presenting an override for the services that are needed and then it’s up to you to decide whether you do want to support the override or not”
Fiscal history
Select Board Clerk Justin Evans opened the April 16 meeting, introducing town and School Department official attending.
A second public forum will be held Thursday, May 1 at the Whitman Library and Hanson officials planned another session for Wednesday, April 30, after both towns held special morning sessions for seniors at their respective senior centers.
Representatives from select boards and finance committees were joined by either Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak or a member or two of the School Committee as well as town department heads to explain the possible outcomes for both town services and public education in the event of a failed Proposition 2.5 override at each forum.
Article 2 on the Monday, May 5 Town Meeting warrant is being presented as “entirely a contingent budget” in Whitman, Evans said.
One of the funding sources for Article 2 will say “raise and appropriate contingent on a Prop 2.5 vote.” If Town Meeting votes yes on contingency Article 2, the plan is to adjourn the budget and wait for the ballot results. If Town Meeting votes no, Evans said, the plan would be to adjourn to a future date after the ballot vote, to it’s clear whether the town has that money to spend.
If Article 2 is passed at Town Meeting, but rejected at the ballot box, then the entire Article 2 is rejected, meaning a new budget process would have to start from the beginning.
The School District would have 30 days to reassess the towns and the Select Board would have 45 days to call another Town Meeting to vote on that reassessment.
“For me, the big take-away here is, we won’t be voting on a contingency budget at Town Meeting,” Select Board member Shawn Kain said. “We’ll be voting on the override at Town Meeting.”
A failed override would mean job losses, both for both the town and the School District. Because Whitman’s share is about 60 percent of the schools’ budget, that increases the number of positions lost to 24 – including 14 teachers, at least two administrators and eight paraprofessionals as the school budget would have to be cut by $2 million, Evans explained. The town of Whitman stands to lose six public safety and DPW employees and the general government side will face the loss of eight employees as well as the reduction of hours and services at some departments.
“There’s a lot of things we would have to sort out if it comes to this [town department staffing reduction] process,” Evans said. “There’s a lot of different things at play here.”
Fee increases would be expected in the areas of indirect charges such as senior discounts, for trash removal and license fees from the town and sports and extracurricular activities fees in the schools.
No contingency
budget
“It should be noted, as well, that this is a theoretical exercise,” Kain said. “The School
Committee has not agreed to a contingency budget. The School Committee sets its assessment. Right now, the assessment that they’ve given us is the one that we’re calculating for the override, but they have not gone through the exercise of, ‘If the override fails, this is what we would do.”
While the proposed cuts may shock some voters, the Select Board is not trying to shock voters into supporting an override, Kain told those attending the forum.
“We opted not to do that,” he said. “The principle that’s primarily driving our contingency is that it will have the least impact possible. … It’ll still be felt for sure. It pains me significantly to see all these people up there [on the chart], and they are people – jobs and future and hopes in the town of Whitman – it’s terrible. And it’s terrible to have to make these decisions … but the principle that is driving our decision-making process is to have the least impact possible – not to create shock value.”
LaMattina noted the budget committee that worked with Madden began in early summer of 2019, with all meetings televised.
“A couple of things have been severely misrepresented,” he said indicating he referred to Kain and Evans in their presentation.
“The purpose of the Madden Report in 2019 was to look into one thing – would the town need an override for the next fiscal year?” he said. “What was determined was that the town did not need an override for that fiscal year.”
But Madden did say that, without following specific practices, that within five years the town would need one. But he indicated one major factor in Madden’s report was not even mentioned April 16 – Madden’s findings would significantly change if the assessment method used by the school district changed in Whitman’s favor.
What is driving the structural deficit facing Whitman?
A combination of things: Inflation and supply chains, the labor market fixed costs such as insurance and liability, utility costs and unfunded mandates involving special education, school transportation and the police reform law, Evans said.
Revenue pressures include the Prop 2.5 limit, insurance and pension liability increases, stagnant new growth and utilities.
“[Prop] 2.5 increases don’t cover that,” Evans said. “We are eating out of our expenses and salary lines to pay for things that we have to pay.”
Evans presented a slide presentation outlining the timeline of the current fiscal situation.
In 2021 the town adopted a five-year strategic plan intended to provide responsible, sustainable services by “fostering strong community relationships for citizens, future citizens and visitors.”
“That framework is why we are here tonight – to try to explain the decision that is coming before voters in the next couple of weeks,” Evans said.
Shawn Kain said the services currently provided to the town is where the override comes into play.
“Do we want to keep the services that we currently provide and that our citizens expect?” he asked. “If the answer to that question is yes, then the override becomes necessary, because the override is going to give us feedback as to whether those services are still needed and expected by the town, or not – and there’s been some debate about this recently.”
Strategic planning
The strategic plan and priority to provide the services, he said, when the budget is being calculated and they can’t provide those services without a deficit, that’s when the override becomes a question and it’s presented to the voters to decide.
The process to raise the levy limit is to seek a Prop. 2.5 override, but the money must still be appropriated at Town Meeting, included in the tax recap submitted to the state and accounted for when the select board sets the tax rate in the fall, Evans explained.
Whitman’s first 12 attempts at overrides were “rejected throughout,” Evans said. Only two have been passed – in 2012 to fund the school budget and 2017 to increase the Fire Department roster by adding three new firefighter/paramedics, increasing staffing to six firefighters per shift.
The town’s current fiscal situation is due to expenditures exceeding revenues, which resulted in a structural deficit, town officials said.
“Starting back in the fall, we projected a deficit of about $2 million.” Evans said. Last year’s $509,000 structural deficit was filled by a Town Meeting vote to use free cash to fund that deficit, “which actually set us a little bit behind this year because we now have to make up that additional one-time money that was used last year built into the deficit this year,” he added, noting that, over time, expenditures were kept close to revenue.
“Although the tax levy makes up the bulk of how we fund operations here in town, it’s also the only one that’s been growing consistently,” Evans said.
“That was a great, impassioned speech of not using one-time money,” LaMattina later said to Kain, noting that “It would have been great to hear is last year at Town Meeting, when the Select Board was steamrolled by a recommending body. That’s what the Finance Committee is.”
Some recent adjustments have been made in how the town assesses things like the ambulance fund, now treated as a local receipt, but state aid has been relatively flat over the last 22 years. A graph he spoke of that tracked local receipts, however, did not include Chapter 70 funds going to Whitman-Hanson Regional School District or the Chapter 74 funds received by South Shore Tech.
“Our revenues have been covering our expenses,” he said. “But it’s been all on the tax levy.”
Former Duxbury Finance Director John Madden was hired by Whitman as a consultant in 2019 to conduct an evaluation of what Whitman’s expenses and revenues would look like.
“The bottom line for his report was that, with no changes the town would need a $1 million override back in fiscal 2021 that would increase to a $5 million projected deficit in 2025,” he said. The town, making the changes Madden had recommended plus additional changes that we continued to develop as officials looked at best practices at other communities had, did not seek overrides for either amount.
LaMattina noted the budget committee that worked with Madden began in early summer of 2019, with all meetings televised.
“A couple of things have been severely misrepresented,” he said indicating he referred to Kain and Evans in their presentation.
“The purpose of the Madden Report in 2019 was to look into one thing – would the town need an override for the next fiscal year?” he said. “What was determined was that the town did not need an override for that fiscal year.”
But Madden did say that, without following specific practices, that within five years the town would need one. But he indicated one major factor in Madden’s report was not even mentioned April 16 – Madden’s findings would significantly change if the assessment method used by the school district changed in Whitman’s favor.
“That was a $1.9 million uptick to Whitman,” when the schools assessment formula was changed to the statutory method,” he said, adding that the shift in the assessment formula Whitman received significantly changed its five-year path. The recommendations also provided the Select Board with a basic guideline on fiscal policies that, had they adopted would produce a more sustainable budget.
On the plus side of the budget ledger, the shift to the statutory method of calculating school assessments saved Whitman $1.9 million. There has also been a change in the way the cost of non-mandated school busing for students living within 1.5 miles of a Whitman school from a miles-based to per-pupil formula to maximize state reimbursement, reducing the town’s cost by about $180,000 this year.
The first recreational cannabis dispensary also received its provisional license in January and expect to open “any time within the next couple of months, when they get final approval from the Cannabis Control Commission,” Evans said. The town will receive community impact fees from the business.
Trying to avoid it
“We’ve been doing a lot to prevent an override,” Kain said about how closely the town has followed Madden’s recommendations. “We’ve been going out of our way and really digging into some of these [Madden Report] initiatives to really find a way to make sure that we can get by without bringing an override to the town, and I think we’ve done a really good job. Some things that were beyond our control, like COVID, obviously threw some [costs] into the mix that we didn’t expect … but we did follow a lot of the recommendations, and we have been able to hold off an override until we got to this point.”
Finance Committee Chair Kathleen Ottina said last year’s Town Meeting vote on three budget options was confusing.
“We didn’t want another confusing fiscal year,” she said. “It’s going to be a tough enough sell, in terms of the budget to explain things to people. We didn’t need the Finance Committee and the Select Board at odds.”
A budget group of Ottina, Kain and Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter began meeting as a budget working group to discuss their different perspectives on the budget since August 2024.
“These were not closed-door, behind the scenes deals,” she said, and noted that she and Kain were often 180 degrees apart on some things. “But we respected each other, we listened to each other.”
The Finance Committee itself has met 15 times, virtually every Tuesday night, since Nov. 19 with all the budget department heads to present their budget proposals. The FinCom took notes to calculate the reasons for increases, then met in join session with the Select Board in February and March. They sent 25 specific questions to Carter on the town budget and 35 such questions to the School Committee for detailed answers.
“We’re going into Town Meeting, having had time as a committee to review Article 2, to understand why the increases were requested, and we supported them.”
All capital requests will be able to be funded by free cash, this year. Ottina added.
Where it will hurt
Szymaniak thanked the Finance Committee and Select Board for putting together joint meetings where he was invited to “actually sit at the table” and see what has transpired.
“This budget that we presented, I think, gives our students the best opportunity to be successful,” he said. “Is it more expensive than last year? Absolutely. … Things are more expensive this year – costs are up.”
And state reimbursements for special education, transporting special needs student referred to out-of-district placements, to name a few.
Police Chief Timothy Hanlon said his department is not currently fully funded, as far as services go, so that every year they have to decide which services the department will be able not fill.
“The problem is, everyone is vying for a piece of the pie here, as far as loss of personnel should the override fail.”
He said that, depending on the nature of the situation. Every officer who goes out short-handed is not able to fully able to do their job on any given day, and when extra people have to be called in to manage any emergency situation the costs are incredible and drive up the budget. When that happens the department sometimes has to come back looking for extra money.
“Last year, it was $90,000,” Hanlon said.
Sending new officers to the academy is not an annual request, but in coming years it will be more common, driving up police department costs.
“This has been very concerning this year,” Fire Chief Timothy Clancy said. “The members of Whitman Fire have a long history of protecting the citizens of this community.”
There have been two fires in the last couple of weeks – one of which was the home of the parents of one of the firefighters working that shift.
“I don’t think there’s anything worse than responding to something at one of your family members’ house for a fire or medical emergency,” he said. In both cases, one of the department’s ambulances was on duty at the hospital, decreasing availability to four firefighters to respond to a house fire.
“We were fortunate that those ambulances were able to clear and respond, and the members did an outstanding job, acting with professionalism and minimized damage to the homes,” Clancy said. He also said members of his department routinely respond while off duty.
“We do not know the numbers yet,” he said. “We’ve heard a few different numbers of what we’ll reduce our staffing by.” That will not only reduce the number calls will cost ambulance response and, revenue. Loss of the firefighter positions added by the 2017 override will also take the department back to an antiquated response capability that dates back to the 1970s.
“There is no fluff in the fire department budget,” he said.
The DPW is also concerned about a loss of manpower due to budget cuts after having seen staff cuts in the past few years, and hiring those new people was not easy in the current job market.

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

Hanson holds first override info forum

April 24, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor


HANSON – Officials in both Whitman, which has held two public informational forums this week, with one more planned – and in Hanson, where a second forum was held Thursday morning, two days after its first forum Tuesday night.
Hanson’s final override informational forum will be held at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 30, again at Hanson Middle School.
Town officials held the first of three planned informational forums concerning the $3 million operational override for the fiscal 2026 budget. The next one will be held at 9 a.m., April 24 in the Hanson Multi-Service Senior Center, which operates out of the building it shares with the Hanson Public Library at Maquan and School Street.
“Hanson is asking for a $3 million increase in the tax levy,” said Town Administrator Lisa Green. “What this [override] does is allow the hiring of four additional firefighters. … It allows for a sustainable budget by eliminating the [the need to use all the free cash to balance budgets]of $1.061 million in free cash, which helps our bond rate.”
“It’s a big ask, it’s a heavy lift,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We know that. We don’t take this lightly at all, but the dire circumstances of what could happen if we do not ask for this are something we felt would be irresponsible if we didn’t ask for this override.
“But, again, it’s up to the voters at Town Meeting and its up to people at the ballot,” she said.
A woman from Lakeside road asked why the override had not been advertised sooner.
“There’s hardly anyone here tonight and this forum wasn’t posted until the other day,” she said. “A lot of people do not use computers and some don’t even look at the newspaper. This is very important to the town to come together and find out how all of you are working to get our budget under control.”
“Other than newspapers, Facebook, online, volunteer people that are trying to get the information out every single week – I don’t know what else we can do,” Select Board Vice Chair Ann Rein said. “If you’re that passionate about it, please come and get involved. We are not trying to hide anything from anybody.”
It also gives the town better credit rating when the town has to borrow. Article 5 on the Town Meeting warrant is the non-override budget and Article 6 is the budget including an override. The ballot question on the override will appear on the Saturday, May 17 ballot.
“The better your credit, the lower your interest rates,” she said. “This will avert all reductions in services.”
The cost of no
Among those proposed reductions which would be negated with the override would be:

  • Approximately $940,000 for the W-H Regional School District;
  • $130,000 for the facilities manager and internet technology;
  • The loss of $160,000 would mean the loss of one police officer and a firefighter;
  • $130,000 for facilities manager and IT for the town;
  • $160,000 in public safety cuts eliminates one police officer and one firefighter;
  • $216,000 means three needed police cruisers;
  • $73,000 eliminates one full-time Highway Department position; and other expenses, which incudes snow and ice removal, road grader;
  • $27,000 cut would mean a reduction in transportation hours;
  • $49,000 cut from the Health budget; Council on Aging, library funding.
    The town website’s budget pages feature a budget calculator with which residents calculate the impact an override could affect them and how many overrides have passed.
    “There’s a lot of chatter out there about all the overrides Hanson has asked for over the years,” Green said. “The town has asked for and received a number of overrides, many have been for the schools, some for the general operation – a majority of them under laws that meant basically, not passed.”
    During the session, which lasted about 40 minutes, moderated by Town Administrator Lisa Green. She was joined by Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf, School Committee Vice Chair Hillary Kniffen, Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr., Police Chief Michel Miksch, Highway Director Richard Jasmin, Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, Vice Chair Ann Rein and members Ed Heal and Joe Weeks.
    “This forum is information only, for questions regarding the override,” Green told those attending. “This is not a forum for arguing or providing your opinion for or against an override. That is for Town Meeting, and that is found at the Town Election.”
    “We’re looking back to 1989 here, so it’s important to note that, if we look back to 2005, there’s been three overrides have passed,” Which can counter the old argument,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. Information available from the state on these points is data-based.
    Handouts containing updated town budgetary documents, including tax relief program for seniors and veterans were made available as well as information from the school district and the survey, which closes by the end of the week. Results of the Bridgewater State University override survey will be discussed at the Tuesday, April 29 Select board meeting.
    The program began with the basics.
    The town is allowed by law to increase its tax levy – the amount of taxes a town can assess and collect from town residents – by 2.5 percent each year. Any new taxable development can also be added to that number. Only town residents can override that levy limit.
    Town revenue sources are taxes on real estate and personal property, state aid sources, local program reimbursements, local receipts such as meals taxes, motor vehicle excise taxes and investment income free cash, stabilization, permit and license fees,
    “Hanson is funded predominantly with property taxes,” Green said of tax information handed out. Those property taxes make up 85 percent of Hanson’s operating revenue. Local receipts make up 9 percent, and local aid is down to 6 percent.
    Where the fiscal 2026 town budget is concerned, general government – mainly the offices working in Town Hall – make up 7 percent of the annual budget. Fire and police – public safety services is 26 percent of Hanson’s budget. But there is some financial “sunshine,” in the town’s low debt percentage of just 1 percent. Employment benefits make up 16 percent of the budget.
    Library and recreational services make up only 2 percent of the budget, and human services – the Council on Aging and Board of Health makes up 1 percent of the budget expenses for Hanson. Public Works is 5 percent of Hanson’s budget.
    Education costs comprise 48 percent of Hanson’s budget in fiscal ’26.
    The forum then took questions from those attending, WHCA-TV was recording the session last night, but was not live streaming. The forum will be posted on YouTube and rebroadcast on the Hanson government access channel in a few days.
    Kinsherf answered one resident’s question about the permanence of 2.5 percent increases in the levy. He said that does indeed compound each year.
    A resident of Lakeside road sought assurance that the override would mean services to private roads will continue under an override, so home values would not be impacted by a lack of road maintenance.
    FitzGerald-Kemmett assured him that, with an override, such road maintenance will continue.
    What departments need
    Green then handed the microphone to Kniffen, O’Brien an Miksch for closing thoughts.
    “It’s important to note that the schools are just asking for a level-services budget,” Kniffen said. “We are not asking to add any programs or any more services for students, but just maintain what we have.”
    Fire Chief O’Brien said his department is asking for something in the fiscal 2026 budget.
    “Last year, we had over 900 runs” he said. “It was simultaneous calls in the town of Hanson. Right now, almost 50 percent of the calls that we do are simultaneous calls. … So what we’re looking for four firefighter/paramedics to be hired.”
    As soon as they can get the second ambulance on the road, that gives the department another ambulance on the road to answer emergency calls until the advanced life support ambulance, which requires a crew of four returns from a hospital.
    Police Chief Miksch pointed to the changes in policing during his 30 years on the job.
    “What am I asking for? My status quo,” he said. “I don’t want to lose any officers. For the first time since COVID, we’re fully staffed. If I’m not fully staffed that means less officers on the road.”
    The time on a call is a lot longer today, as officers are responsible for a lot more things.
    The Highway Department is also looking to be fully staffed, avoiding the expense of contracting out work a fully staffed department would not need to use.
    Senior Center Director Mary Collins said the center’s ability to bring back the adult supportive day program, which will be able to return to offering services five daya a week when the new modular unit arrives next month.
    “We’re a small department,” she said, noting it takes up only four-tenths of 1 percent (.4 percent) of the town budget. “We rarely ask for more than that, knowing that we have other departments that are in need.
    Collins, too, is seeking level funding — which in her department’s case is only $12,000.

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

What’s at stake in Whitman

April 17, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

WHITMAN – If the people don’t know what’s going to happen when they say no to an override, they’re going to say no.
High Street resident John Galvin argued at the Tuesday, April 15 Select Board meeting that the success or failure of the override question hinges on fully informing voters.
“It won’t be pretty when the override fails, but in my opinion, it will unless you get the information out there of what services might get affected and how bad it’s going to be,” Galvin said. “Because people are just going to say, ‘Oh, they say that every year. It’s never going to happen.”
This year, the board’s contingency budget doesn’t mean, as it has in the past, an alternate plan for expending revenue in the event the override question fails – it means how the financial pain will be felt by town employees in the form of job losses if that happens, and how the public could see the resulting loss of services. But specific jobs at risk have not been listed.
The budget was, in fact, the only item of business on the agenda.
All of them will result in a variety of reductions to the town’s current staffing levels.
“If the override does not pass, the only option to balance the budget and close the deficit for fiscal 2026 is to reduce staffing,” said Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, who stressed that services would be reduced before the town resorted to that. Carter said she has considered several different Fiscal ’26 contingency scenarios over the past few weeks.
“At this time, all options are being considered, however, all of the options, of course, are less than ideal,” she said adding that the reductions will, in turn, impact the services residents of Whitman currently receive.
“Departmental budgets will be scaled back to a minimum level before staffing reductions are considered. It’s our intention to keep any reductions in staffing and reductions to services to a minimum level, however the town could be facing reductions of up to 14 positions across the various town departments.”
High Street resident John Galvin said, with Town Meeting in three weeks, the Select Board must decide as quickly as possible, the details of such reductions.
“The people need to know, the voters need to know, the taxpayers need to know,” he said. “What happens if we vote no? The department heads need to know, the personnel need to know.”
Select Board member Shawn Kain, who is a member of the budget working group, argued that, while on one hand it’s good to know what services could be potentially lost, but to be respectful to people he doesn’t believe in putting people’s professional fate public.
Kain said there could be a couple of different strategies with an override such as trying to get the most shock value.
“I don’t support that,” he said. “I think if we have to put together a contingency plan – and it’s going to be about 14 full-time employees – I think we try to do it in the least impactful way possible.”
Carter said there are different ways departments could feel the effects of budget cuts if the override fails, such as expense lines, where she has “pulled everything back before we take the last step to reduce staff.”
“You have tiny departments – Planning Board and Bylaw Study Committee, little departments like that that we can make any adjustments in – but all the major departments will have some reductions in expenses, of course, or in staffing.”
Kain noted that there has been some discussion online about the use of free cash.
“I feel like we have some use of free cash that’s in line with our financial policy, embedded in the budget – about $340,000 in free cash – and for me, I think those are acceptable uses, because it’s short-term use. It’s not paying for personnel and regular budgetary items,” he said. “I would not support the use of free cash beyond what we currently have in the budget. I will not.”
He said it’s not meant to be a shock or scare tactic.
Carter said she had talked with John Adams of the accounting department, who is a former financial director, on Tuesday, who stressed and she knows as well, that free cash is one-time money that should not be used for recurring expenses.
Even with the $2 million override, she said the town is looking at a deficit of $1.8 million in fiscal 2027 ($2.6 million without an override), and a $3.9 million deficit for 2028.
“One of the reasons that we’re in the situation we’re in this year is because we used free cash last year,” she said. “If we were ever to use a large amount of free cash this year … it’s not even a Band-Aid. It’s a bad fiscal move.”
Free cash is the number one funding source for capital needs and using it to balance the budget would deplete that source.
“If you just start going down that path, using free cash to close the budget … auditors would not look [favorably] on that,” she said. Rating agencies also take that into consideration when deciding the town’s bond rating and the town could be downgraded in the future, leading to higher rates if the town needs to borrow in the future.
The $340,000 Kain mentioned is intended to used toward the Plymouth County Pension liability, that is expected to be paid off in 2030. Once that is paid up it will free up quite a bit of money in Whitman’s budget annually, which she then would like to see diverted to the other post-employment benefits [OPEB] liability, currently $140,000 a year paid from meals tax revenues, and some could be used in the regular budget. The pay-off of both liabilities also factors into the town’s bond rating calculations.
Select Board member Justin Evans said that, if Town Meeting supports the Select Board budget May 5, they will be waiting for the override ballot question result on May 17.
“If it passes, we have a balanced budget,” he said. “If it doesn’t, we have to start looking at these scenarios. But the clock really starts when the School Committee has 30 days to reassess the towns because they now have a rejected regional school budget. I imagine they’d do it sooner.”
The town would have 45 days to call a special Town Meeting at that point.
“The same process works for [South Shore Tech] if all four towns that have overrides on the ballot that are [SST] members, fail to pass a [SST] budget, [they’ll] do the same thing,” he said. “I don’t want to get into specifics right now to scare departments, but I think only … draft cuts number three scenario is even workable as a town – as devastating as it would be to all of our departments.”
He made a motion to recommend that scenario going forward.
“I think we deserve to start preparing for the worst because, right now, an override’s probably 50-50 at best,” Evans said.
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci, who was directing the meeting in the absence of Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski, said he would prefer to wait for a full board to decide that.
Police Chief Timothy Hanlon and Fire Chief Timothy Clancy offered a glimpse of the effect cuts could have in their departments as about five public safety job losses are anticipated if the override fails.
“For public safety, we think worst-case scenario first,” Hanlon said. “That’s the bleak outlook that we have to face now.” He said his department hasn’t been level serviced since at least 2012.
“In 2017, the townspeople spoke to increase our staffing from the 1970s [levels],” Clancy said. “Now that we’re being faced with the challenge of decreasing that staffing, it’s super disheartening. … If we start losing people, we start losing ambulances. If we start losing ambulances, we start losing revenue. When does it stop? … I’ve sworn to protect this town and I have to have the people to do it.”
Kain noted that the schools have not outlined specifics of the job cuts they anticipate other than that they want to stay away from elementary grade cuts with “a little at the middle schools and high school.”
“They deliberately left out the details because right now, for one, there’s a lot to be considered,” he said. “We don’t know how to calculate what we’re going to be up against because we don’t know exactly what the number is. Period.”
On Wednesday, April 9, the School District had outlined the effect an override failure will have in the schools.

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

Whitman board backs a one-year override

April 10, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

WHITMAN – Meeting on Monday night, the Select Board voted to place an override article on the Town Meeting warrant for a $2 million, one-year article.
Board member Shawn Kain had made a compromise motion first to support a $2 million override for one year that gained no support.
Member Justin Evans suggested a one-year override at $2.4 million, at which Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski passed the gavel to Vice Chair Dan Salvucci so he could second Evans’ motion. It received a deadlocked 2-2 vote with Kowalski and Evans voting yes and Salvucci and Kain voting no.
Kain restated his motion and, again, Kowalski passed the gavel to second it.
This time, the one-year $2 million override motion passed by a 3-1 vote, with only Salvucci voting no.
But they first had to clear up a resident’s issue with the meeting’s agenda.
Resident John Galvin had spoken during the public forum, objecting to what he called a decision “made behind closed doors” not to include the agenda item attendees and viewers “were expecting … discussing the difference” between a three-year and a one-year override.
Kowalski immediately countered Galvin’s assertions.
“I’ve got a long list of where you were off in your remarks,” Kowalski said. He countered that there was an agenda item for a budget update as well as Galvin’s concern that the override amounts would not be covered.
“What we plan to do tonight is to discuss whether the Select Board goes along with the one-year advice of the Finance Committee, or whether it changes it to three years. We haven’t had that discussion yet. That will happen tonight.”
But Galvin countered that all three options for a ballot article involved one-year overrides that would not solve Whitman’s fiscal dilemma.
“All three of those amounts do not get the job done,” he said.
“I totally agree with you, as far as that’s concerned,” Kowalski replied. “However, the [Select Board] was ready last week … and the Finance Committee went off after we had the joint meeting and they made their decision. We haven’t had a chance to discuss it as a board since that time.”
When the time to vote came, Kowalski said he was moved by Shawn [Kain] and Justin [Evans] in their advocating for a one-year override. He had favored three-years.
“I think that one-year is the way to go however, I’m really hoping that Shawn does some serious thinking right now about the $2.4 million,” he said. “That’s the only way we’re even going to come close to doing anything next year.”
He said he is also not convinced that the town would vote it down.
“I’ve seen the town be generous a lot over the course of my years here and I have faith in it,” Kowalski said.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said the actual language and amount sought does not need to be printed exactly on the agenda to be discussed. The Select Board only needs to have the amount they do vote for to the Town Clerk by April 10.
Once the discussion turned to the meat of the issue – a one-year override, or two, or even three.
Carter said she felt the responsible thing to do would be to look at the numbers that I did fold into the override side and enter a figure that would carry the town for three years.
For example, entering a $1.7 million override, Whitman will have about $2,000 left over in town’s excess levy account this year, In 2027, the shortfall would be $895,000 short in 2028 of a little over $2 million.
She replied to Evans’ question that the numbers assume Town Meeting will support using Articles 19 and 20, to use free cash to pay the retirement assessment and OPEB.
Evans supported a $2.4 million override because he didn’t like assuming Town Meeting would back the use of free cash and he doesn’t expect the four union negotiations still have not concluded and he expressed concern that they all would be before Town Meeting.
“I’m a little concerned about the economic outlook next year,” Evans said. “It is still a one-year override, using the deficit we projected weeks ago.”
For a $2 million override, she based calculations on $302,000 in excess levy this year and be short $587,000 next year and $1.8 million short in 2028. Likewise, a $2.4 million override would be $702,000 in excess levy next year and short about $177,000 next year. And $1.7 million in 2028.
“I do understand the point of keeping it short as well, but the difference between a $1.7 million override and a $2.4 million override on the average home [$495,736.78] in fiscal 2025, is a difference of $10.87 a month or $130.44 a year. The increase in taxes is $316.76.
“I think it’s very important that, if we’re going to ask the people of the town to sacrifice, that we show them how we’ll sacrifice,” said Kain. “I don’t think it’s irresponsible to ask for a number that’s slightly less or less than what we need over the next three years. … In some sense, that’s kind of our skin in the game.”
He advocated that the smallest override in one year has the highest chance of passing.
“That, I’d be really grateful for, and the employees of the town would be really grateful for, and we can do a lot with that money,” Kain said. “I’d feel terrible to ask more and get nothing.”
Member Justin Evans said he’d been listening to the Finance Committee discourse on the night they addressed the merits of a one-year vs a three-year override.
“While I still feel a three-year is the one that makes the most sense financially,” Evans said noting that he appreciated their discussion. “A lot of it was around the practicality of explaining why this is the amount of … and manage that process in the next six weeks.
Evans expressed surprise that the FinCom was unanimous in their vote.
Salvucci, however was just as firm, strongly opposing any override.
“But, I agree [with] one year, the lowest amount [that] we can] get,” he said, arguing that with three-or evan two years, it just opens the doors for town department heads to not control their budgets.
“Whether it’s town budgets or school budgets, if you know exactly what you have to spend, it’s like a family – if you’ve got $100 and you all go out to eat, you don’t go out an buy a $300 meal. You know what you have to spend. … It gets them to do their budgets based on what they need and not what they want. Call me cheap, but that’s how I think.”
Kowalski also challenged that statement on the FinCom directing the town’s financial agenda.
“That’s not what happened last year,” Kowalski said. “What happened last year was that the Finance Committee took over the Town Meeting – in a way that they can – and they voted to do it a totally different way than we had suggested.”
Finance Committee Chair Kathleen Ottina agreed that was an accurate summation of what transpired at the 2024 Town Meeting vote on Article 2. The Select Board had recommended an override and the FinCom sought to fill the gap with free cash. But, she noted, both boards have been working much more closely together this year.
She said there was some support for a three-year override on the Finance Committee before they voted, but members were swayed by Evans’ comment that, statistically voters do not support overrides.
They felt a one-year override stood the best chance of passing.
“We’d hate to risk going for the fiscally responsible three-year override and get nothing,” she said, hoping local receipts increase, some financing from the state increase and Chapter 70 increases, among other fiscal changes.

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

Whitman adopts a new free cash policy

April 3, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

WHITMAN – The town has a new Free Cash policy.
The Select Board, on Tuesday, March 25, voted to support the new policy recommended by Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, which will establish a budgetary policy for the use of free cash which includes –
Place 10 percent of the certified free cash amount, each fiscal year, allocated to the capitalization stabilization fund – not to be expended in the first year – but as a savings account that we’re slowly and steady adding to; and then, another 10 percent, especially after the remaining balance of the certified Free Cash amount would be added to the general stabilization fund each year; and we discussed placing a minimum of $200,000 each fiscal year be transferred from Free Cash to Plymouth County Retirement line until the undfunded liability is paid off; and a minimum of $140,000 each fiscal year, shall be transferred to the Article 2 line for “Other Post Employment Benefits.
The policy will begin this year.
“I think that, if we follow this every year, we are going to build a capital stabilization fund in the way that we should,” she said. “That money is not be touched. The towns that touch, the general stabilization fund are the towns that find themselves in trouble. Once they open that, and start going after that, they have nothing.”
She wanted to start the policy to build up some “good reserves” because the town needs a new fire engine, and an upgrade to financial software for starters.
“I think that this will put us on a good road for the future, if we just do this every single year,” she said.
“It sounds like a good plan,” Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said.
Board member Shawn Kain said that, when one looks at the towns that withstand some of these difficult times, and the ones that get into trouble, it’s the ones that have their financial policies set in place as the “rudder that keeps them on track.”
“There might be some difficult decisions in the future because of this, if we follow that plan it should keep us on solid financial ground,” he said.
Member Justin Evans noted that. “The unstated part of the policy will mean that 75-percent of certified free cash would be the town’s capital plan year after year.”
Whitman 150 update
Whitman 150 Committee Chair Richard Rosen also briefed the board on planned events for the towns sesquicentennial.
“Things are going very well, Rosen said. “We’re selling merchandise. There’s a lot of people buying … stuff,” Rosen said. “We want part of what will ultimately be history.”
He reminded residents that the kickoff dinner, scheduled for Saturday, April 5 at the Cardinal Spellman Center, and tickets will not be available at the door. To obtain tickets, priced at $50 each, are still available. Interested residents must contact Rosen’s office at 781- to obtain individual tickets wo reserve tables of eight or 10.
On Sunday, April 27, the burial of another time capsule on the Town Hall lawn, will overseen by former Fire Chief Tinothy Grenno and Thomas Burnett, who helped lower the 2000 event capsule on that same lawn during the centennial celebration.
A series of photos published by the Brockton Enterprise, at the time, shows Grenno and Burnett lower the time capsule into the hole made by a DPW crew.
“I found them both and asked if they’d [come back] and they both said yes,” Rosen said.
The centennial time capsule is slated to be disinterred in 2075 and the new one will be dug up in 2100.
“That way, we figured nobody would still be alive when they dig it up,” Rosen joked.
If people have items they would like to place in the time capsule, they should drop the items off at North Easton Savings Bank, Bedford St.
“North Easton Savings Bank has been extremely good to us in terms of donating money, time effort, volunteers – they’ve been great,” Rosen said.
Wondering how big items one might want to donate for the time capsule can be accommodated?
“I think anything much bigger than a shoebox isn’t that great,” Rosen said. “But I do need, like, a persons listed book and stuff like that, that after 75 years, people are going to look at it and go, ‘Wow!’ or whatever they’ll say.”
Rosen said there’s an important contest going on in the schools right now, as students in kindergarten through grade eight write essays – for the older grades, and photos for the younger children – on the theme: “Wonderful Whitman.”
Winners, chosen by teachers, will have their work placed in the time capsule, and they will be present when the time capsule is lowered – and more. Rosen said.
North Easton Savings will present the winning students with a bank account, which some have never had, and they’ll be invited to march in the parade on June 27.
The cornhole tournament signup list is still open.
The roadrace, slated for Sunday, June 8, will start next to the fire station.
“They’re going to come out of the [WWI Memorial] Arch and then do a similar route to all the roadraces that we used to have,” Rosen said.
Runners will be able to signup live on the next couple of days,” he said..
A band concert on June 14, followed by fireworks, and Sunday, June 22, fills out the celebration with a “pretty big parade,” Rosen said. “That’s [parpade] is going to be the final event that we’re doing,” he said. “I do need to set up a joint meeting with the police and fire chiefs and the DPW in the very near future, so they’re not surprised by any of this.”

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

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