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Select Board begins planning for possible multi‑year override after FY28 shortfall forecast
Summary
Staff briefed the board on a multi‑year projection that suggests Southborough may need additional levy capacity for FY28; advisers recommended a single multi‑year (five‑year) operational override rather than repeated annual requests. The board asked staff to develop multiple scenarios and to start public outreach.
Staff and an outside adviser presented preliminary multi‑year budget projections and a recommended approach for addressing an expected FY28 shortfall. Using conservative assumptions (5% year‑over‑year operating cost growth and continuing pressures on benefits and capital), staff said the town faces a gap that could require roughly $2,000,000 of additional levy capacity for FY28; an adviser recommended seeking a single multi‑year operational override (a 5‑year authorization) so the town would not have to ask voters to approve an override every year.
Select Board members focused on communications: they asked staff to prepare multiple scenarios (1‑, 3‑ and 5‑year options), to develop plain‑language explanations of what an override would fund and what cuts would look like if an override failed, and to schedule many community meetings to explain the proposal before a ballot question. The board scheduled a detailed budget‑process meeting for August 11 and asked advisory and other stakeholders to participate in planning sessions.
Staff stressed that schools, capital debt exclusions and other items (for example, the near‑term NHERI/rec capital questions) will interact with levy capacity, and recommended that the board finalize a public engagement plan and contingencies in advance of any Town Meeting and ballot vote.
