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Date: 5/25/2021
SOUTHAMPTON – Three articles that could appear on the Southampton Annual Town Election ballot as ballot questions will be discussed during the Annual Town Meeting on June 12.
If passed as an article during the Annual Town Meeting, the first question would ask residents if they would allow the town of Southampton to assess an additional $718,466.51 – also known as the override budget – in real estate and personal property taxes for the purposes of funding specific departments and accounts within the town’s operating budget; including, but not limited to, the William Norris Elementary School Department, the town’s Police Department, Fire/EMS department, the Highway Department, etc.
According to Matt Roland, a member of the Selectboard, department heads across town have asked for specific items they need included within the override budget that will help them for the future. In case the town disapproves the override budget at either the town meeting or election, Roland has asked affected departments to make a list of what exactly will happen if the budget does not pass, and what may happen they have to rely on the current balanced budget, which sits at $18.3 million.
Roland added that a department like the William Norris School Department could experience some of the worst losses if the override budget does not pass, because they make up a large percentage of the overall budget.
“We’re trying to address the learning loss that took place over the previous school year, and put the resources in place for students so they do not fall behind,” said Roland.
According to Roland, the state of Massachusetts is not fulfilling its obligation to state-mandated items with regard to school departments, especially school transportation. The state used to be 100 percent responsible for all school transportation, but now local municipalities are being held responsible for all transportation costs. The state was also supposed to provide vocational school tuition.
“The state said they were going to 100 percent fund these things,” said Roland. “To this date, they have not 100 percent funded them, so the municipalities are left on the hook for a lot of these costs.”
Roland added that these costs are ballooning, especially during COVID-19, where students may want to move out of district if they are not getting the special help they need during the pandemic. The passing of the override budget would help alleviate some of these problems.
“There’s a lot of moving parts here, and the state in my opinion is not picking up its fair share,” said Roland.
Road improvements are another important necessity within town, according to Roland. While he commended the highway department for doing an “amazing job” with a limited budget, Roland said that a bigger budget will be necessary for added road improvements. “In an override budget, we’re trying to provide those additional supplies to be able to take care of more of our roads,” he said.
The accreditation level of the town’s public libraries will also be heavily affected if the override budget does not pass, and in general government, the town is looking to improve technology, especially web service and phone service. This will allow people to contact town officials easier. The town has created an Ad Hoc Committee to help guide the town through this process.
Regardless of what happens during the Town Meeting and election, Roland said that wage increases will occur no matter what as they are already included within the town’s balanced budget. They are not a part of the override budget, therefore the Town Meeting and election will not affect these raises.
If passed as an article during the Annual Town Meeting, the second ballot question would ask residents if the town of Southampton should be allowed to exempt itself from the Proposition 2 1/2 law, and acquire a possible debt exclusion of $261,000 in order to pay costs for the purchase of a new single axle dump truck for the plow and sander body for the highway department.
According to Roland, the highway department has over 20 vehicles of various age and various miles. “We generally buy our equipment, and we run it as far as it can go,” said Roland, who added that he does not believe townspeople know exactly how many vehicles help maintain the roads.
“I often hear, ‘why is there a dump truck on [the ballot], we just bought a dump truck last year,’” said Roland. “Well, there’s 10 of them.”
Because they have so many vehicles, Roland said that the town should realistically expect a dump truck article and ballot question once every other year. “The citizens in town have seen a dump truck now every year because we’re trying to play catchup for years where we did not do a dump truck,” said Roland. “We are going to catch up.”
The final question that could appear on the ballot would ask residents to allow the town of Southampton to be exempt from the provisions of Proposition 2 ½ in order to pay costs for the acquisition of the right of way and/or design for the town greenway bike and pedestrian path.
While Roland said that this is a large ask considering the COVID-19 pandemic, he did want to point out that there are two grants that have been granted to Southampton already. One of them was $100,000 for the actual purchase and rights of the greenway railroad. The debt exclusion ask is the difference between selling price to acquire it and the $100,000. If the town does not purchase the railroad within a year, then that grant will expire.
The other grant from the state is a $6 million grant to actually build the greenway. The town has had that grant lined up for two years, but if the they do not start making progress on the greenway, then the grant will be taken away.
“We want to give the citizens the opportunity to decide what they want,” said Roland. “If this is a huge priority, then there’s a lot of funds that are going to go into this.”
The Annual Town Meeting is set to occur at Labrie Field on June 12 at 10 a.m. The Annual Town Election will occur on June 22 from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Town Hall.