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Finance Committee reviews plan to smooth election costs after FY27 spike
Summary
Town Clerk and Elections & Registration official proposed creating a non-discretionary line to smooth election-year spending (approx. $50,000–$60,000 annually); FY27 spike (three elections) would be funded from free cash and future appropriations would even out costs.
Town Clerk Mark Hogan and Town Administrator Fred Turkington told the Finance Committee on Feb. 23 that the Elections & Registration (E&R) budget for FY27 is significantly higher than recent years because FY27 includes three elections compared with one last year.
Hogan explained that costs for election workers, voting equipment agreements, software maintenance and increased postage for vote-by-mail ballots drive the FY27 increase. He proposed creating a separate, non-discretionary line funded annually (roughly $50,000–$60,000) that would carry forward to smooth higher-cost election years. Turkington said the FY27 variance could be funded from free cash and that the committee would vote on the budget and identify the revenue source when finalizing numbers.
Committee members sought comparisons to prior high-election years and questioned whether the FY27 increase was attributable solely to election volume versus inflation. Hogan said estimates were based on trends in vote-by-mail participation and the supplemental material provided shows the number and type of recent elections.
