Keep Acton Affordable Vote NO at Town Elections on April 30

By Keep Acton Affordable

At Acton’s 2016 Annual Town Meeting, there was an article to approve funding to repaint Town Hall. The Finance Committee refused to recommend the article unless the Town Hall was repainted white, assuming that would be the cheapest option. The Board of Selectmen wanted Town Hall to be restored to its historically accurate colors. This debate went on for much longer than anyone expected, drawing laughs and probably some frustration from those in attendance. Eventually, the Board of Selectmen prevailed and Town Meeting approved. That’s why Town Hall is now beige with brown trim. The budget on that warrant article was $162,000. No less than 30 minutes was spent debating that article (it felt like twice that long).

Acton’s assessment for the School District that year (FY17) was $55,547,097. As is typically the case, the assessment passed with almost no discussion, but for argument’s sake, let’s say that also took 30 minutes. On what color to paint Town Hall, debate lasted at least 18 minutes per $100K. On the school assessment, discussion lasted no more than 0.054 minutes (3.25 seconds) per $100K. The white-versus-beige paint article did provide entertainment value, though.

Flash forward eight years to 2024, and we are faced with the largest tax override request in Acton’s history. At a net impact of $872 plus 2.5% compounding in perpetuity, the impact of a $6.6M override would exceed the impact of the Twin Schools, which is estimated at an average of approximately $500 and will eventually be retired.

There are a couple ways to look at the total increase in the school budget since the 2016 Town Meeting – total school budget or Acton’s assessment. No matter how it’s sliced, budget growth has outpaced inflation to the tune of millions of dollars. Moreover, this occurred while enrollment has steadily declined – AB has lost approximately 1,000 students since enrollment peaked around 2008-2010. Had the District adjusted for this over the last 15 years and had the Select Board held their feet to the fire, we would not be facing a $6.6 million override today.

The Town, the School District and the Acton Boxborough Education Association (aka the teachers’ union) were finally shamed into seeking membership in a more affordable, less volatile health insurance pool, which will save money going forward. Without this budget crisis, they would have merrily kept on wasting our money. Citizens requested the override be reduced to reflect this savings, but the Select Board was not open to compromise. While the Town and District employees will see lower health care premiums coming out of their paychecks starting in June, taxpayers will never see any savings in our tax bills. The Select Board decided to keep those savings in the form of untaxed levy, to be added onto our tax bills whenever they choose (almost certainly next year). In total, the override will add $1,333 to the average single family tax bill.

The projected increase of $1,201 for FY25 is no coincidence. The only reason the Select Board is not going to roll in the full amount to our tax bills all at once is that the Finance Committee convinced the Select Board that the override will be an easier sell if they can keep the FY25 increase to about $1,200 – or $100 per month. The FinCom were more concerned about staying within some arbitrary psychological threshold than they were about minimizing the impact on taxpayers. Why not make it $1,199.99? This must have seemed easier than insisting the School District seriously scrub their budget for lasting structural changes before raising our taxes. Make no mistake – the average tax bill will ultimately go up by the full $1,333, and it will continue to increase by 2.5% in perpetuity. And without making necessary structural changes to the school district will eventually land us right back at another operational override.

Shouldn’t we have just as robust and open a discussion about override that will raise our property taxes by an average of over $1300 forever as we did over the color of Town Hall? Unfortunately, the opportunity for discussion and compromise has passed. The Select Board, the School Committee and the Finance Committee have circled their wagons around this $6.6M figure. Even though they know they don’t need it all, they refused to reduce the impact on taxpayers.

On the question of the override, please vote NO on Tuesday, April 30 at the annual town election. If we do not defeat it at the ballot, we’ll have another chance at Town Meeting on Monday, May 6. We only need to vote it down once, while proponents of the override need to win twice. Let’s do it at the ballot box!

If you anticipate any trouble getting to the polls on April 30, you can send in an application to vote by mail. This application must be received by Town Hall no later than April 23.

For more information, to host a sign, to ask questions or volunteer, please check out Keep Acton Affordable online and Facebook.