HANSON – Hanson Town meeting voters are giving the town’s voters another chance to be heard on the proposed operational override to fund town departments and the schools.
Meeting at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School to accommodate a larger crowd, the Town Meeting voters agreed, by a vote of 230-118 to place the override on the town’s annual Town Election ballot for a Saturday, May 17 vote.
A brief informational slide presentation on the basics of overrides and town revenue sources, preceded Article 5 and Article 6, which encompass the fiscal 2026 town budget.
“Usually, we just vote on one budget, but because we have a Proposition 2.5 override on the ballot coming up May 17 … whatever we do tonight, that question will be on the ballot that day, and whatever the vote comes out will be what is done – whether we have an override or we reject it, Moderator Sean Kealy said.
The meeting then addressed Article 5 – without the override – and if the override passes, as it did, the Article 6 budget will be used. If the override is defeated at the ballot box, Article 6 will have no legal effect.
“[The budget] is entirely contingent on how the town votes,” he said.
Hanson Finance Chair Kevin Sullivan spoke frankly about the “serious budget challenges” Hanson faces, and why after an extensive review, the $3 million operational override has been recommended by his committee to maintain the services Hanson residents rely on every day.
Hanson receives 85 percent of its revenue from property taxes
“Under the limits of Proposition 2.5 our allowable revenue growth simply isn’t keeping pace with the rising costs of operating the town, especially in the face of inflation, contractual obligations and the increasing demands on our services,” Sullivan said. “This isn’t about funding new programs, this is about preserving the level of service that we have come to expect:”
- Police and fire departments, already operating with lean staffing and increasing call volumes;
- Town Hall, library, recreation and outdoor spaces, which provide vital functions for residents and businesses alike;
- School, essential not only for the education of children, but also for the town’s strength and stability.
“Without an override, we will be forced to make extremely difficult decisions, including depleting free cash reserves, which are largely meant for capital expenditures, or making deep cuts across every department,” Sullivan said. “The Finance Committee has scrutinized this budget. We worked with every department head. We’ve reviewed every line item. We have prioritized needs, not wants, but the numbers don’t lie, the gap is real and we can no longer stretch our limited resources without damaging the core of what makes Hanson work.”
He emphasized that the picture he painted was not intended to be a scare tactic, but is a fiscal reality.
The lower school budget number in Article 5 than was approved by the School Committee would have been a rejection of the school budget if approved, which only the School Committee has the authority to reduce and send back to the town.
Richard Road resident and former School Committee member Jim Armstrong said the state supplied 74 percent of the school budget until it convinced Hanson and Whitman to regionalize.
“Every so often we have to go back and remember we used to get spoiled,” he said. “We’re not anymore and we have to start paying our way, and that’s really what it comes down to, because the state’s not supporting us like they used to so over the years we’ve had to figure out how to get there and once in a while we have to do an override to get there.”
Another resident asked why the departments were linked together in the budget.
Sullivan replied that they were not, but to fairly budget, all departments were asked to cut their budgets by 5 percent.
“But if you say yes to the override, you’re saying yes to everyone equally,” she countered.
“The override is just a method for overcoming a monetary threshold,” Sullivan said. “It has nothing to do with the town departments.”
“I think what you’re asking is, ‘Why not separate [them]?’” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Because we have gotten some feedback on that and we did look at that as a board in terms of how to present it.”
She noted that the town conducted an override just for the schools last year.
“That did not go well because … at Town Meeting, people got up and ended up eviscerating the Town Hall budget in order to fund the educational budget,” she said. As a result, small cuts had to be made affecting individual services like transfer station hours.
“This year, we had more than one department that really made a compelling argument, so it made sense to bundle it,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“This is sort of resetting the baseline,” Sullivan, noting that $3 million is the largest override they’ve recommended. “For too many years we were too far behind.” The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education switched the funding formula and that left Hanson in a pretty significant hole, as well, which served to set the town even farther behind, he explained.
“This is resetting the number to get all the town departments the correct personnel that they want for the needs that we have and continue us on a path where, hopefully, we won’t need another override three to five years from now,” Sullivan said.
School Committee member Kara Moser, while stressing that the school budget is level-serviced, sought to explain why that department’s expenses keep increasing. For example, regional school districts are responsible for paying employee benefits, just as a municipality would and W-H employs 600 people who are eligible for benefits. Then there are the state and federal mandates for services the school district is legally required to provide – such as special education – and not all are funded – such as out of district transportation for homeless students. Students going to charter or some vocational schools are also not always funded.
Two residents asked about the procedure if the override were to fail Town Meeting, but pass at the ballot box.
“We would go again,” Sullivan said. “We have another option to hold another Town Meeting and revote the override again.”
“It seems like it’s pointless to vote no on the override thing tonight,” one resident said. “Even if you are very, very against the override, you still should vote yes on six because the actual vote that kills the override is at the ballot – not tonight.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said that may be, but it wouldn’t alter the town’s dilemma of having a school budget left unfunded.
“Ultimately that sends it back to the School Committee about whether they’re going to lower the budget or seek the same assessment,” she said.
Resident Mike DiCarlo of Indian Head Street made a motion to separate the school and public safety budgets into to override questions instead of one.
Kealy said the motion would be more properly made during discussion of Article 6, and that the ballots are already printed and cannot be changed.