Templeton administrator presents FY27 budget showing $3.22 million shortfall; board schedules department reviews

The Town of Templeton's administrator presented a preliminary fiscal year 2027 budget on March 2, outlining a projected operating deficit of $3,220,996 and asking department heads to start from a "level service" baseline.

The administrator told the Select Board that he instructed departments to produce budgets sufficient to maintain current services and to include unavoidable increases such as fuel, technology replacements and contract settlements. "Give me a budget that allows you to continue providing the services at the base level that we are providing them today into FY27," he said, adding that he factored a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment for non-union employees and included known union settlements where applicable.

Why it matters: the presentation said removing prior year "lump-sum disallows" from department templates adds roughly 26.4% of the townside portion of the deficit; separately, health-insurance costs are running about 20% higher than last year, the administrator said, and attributed part of that increase to claims and to higher utilization of GLP-1 weight-loss medications. The budget memo also flagged only modest new-growth revenue (about $60,000) and limited one-time support: free cash of roughly $83,951 is included in the draft but the administrator said using large one-time balances to fund operations is not a sustainable practice.

Supporting details: the presentation broke the expense increases into major drivers. The administrator noted the regional school assessment and settled public-safety contracts as large contributors; he said the Naragansett/ regional-school figure the schools plan to present could be sizable and stressed coordination with the district, which is legally required to certify a number by March 31. He also walked the board through several options for closing the gap, including targeted cuts, use of free cash at modest levels and modest revenue increases.

Board process next steps: Select Board members pressed for more detail and agreed to hold a focused budget review with department heads at the upcoming Saturday session and to receive the superintendent's budget presentation on March 9. The administrator said he will deliver full department packets and slide decks in advance and recommended the board consider a mix of targeted and across-the-board changes rather than immediate, deep cuts.

The meeting closed with members acknowledging the timing constraints imposed by state certification deadlines for school budgets and the need for additional meetings to reconcile town and school numbers before final warrant preparation. The Budget presentation and related materials were shown to the public on the TCTV feed and will be available with the posted meeting recording.