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Hampden officials weigh using $1.8 million in free cash to lower tax impact, debate delaying warrant articles
Summary
Town leaders debated whether to apply a larger-than-normal free cash balance toward paying a water-project debt, reducing next year's tax rate, or preserving stabilization for future capital needs; the board voted to briefly reopen and then close the special town meeting warrant and agreed to further advisory meetings.
Select Board members and finance staff in the Town of Hampden spent the bulk of their Oct. 14 meeting discussing how to use an unusually large free cash balance and how that decision will affect tax rates, upcoming capital needs and the special town meeting warrant.
Town finance staff reported an official free cash certification of about $1.8 million, a sum larger than typical for the town. Finance and board members traced the increase to last year’s accounting decisions tied to a multi-year water project: the board had expected to apply $650,000 from stabilization and about $1.1 million to pay down project debt, but state reviewers at the Division of Local Services (DLS) and Department of Revenue (DOR) required different accounting treatments. As a result, the town reduced anticipated local receipts and adjusted the overlay reserve to create a path for declaring the funds as surplus; that sequence produced the $1.8 million free cash…
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