By Keith Regan, Contributing Writer
Northborough – The average homeowner’s tax bill will increase $269 if voters adopt the proposed fiscal year 2016 budget – one of the largest increases in recent years and driven in large part by initial debt payments on the Lincoln Street School project.
Although the overall $58.1 million budget presented to a joint hearing of the Board of Selectmen and the Appropriations Committee by Town Administrator John Coderre March 23 represents a 7.9 percent increase over the current year, the operating budget for most of the town’s schools and general government are expanding by just 3.5 percent.
The budget also sets aside $2.2 million in free cash to fund capital projects and includes a $200,000 payment into the town’s stabilization fund – the first since 2008.
The tax increase would be one of the largest Northborough taxpayers have faced in recent years. Over the past five years, annual increases have averaged less than $100 and over the last decade, Northborough’s annual increases have been among the lowest in the area, Coderre said.
Of the $269 increase, $168 represents growth in the operating budget while $101 is new debt from the first phase of the Lincoln Street School project, which at $14.5 million in town share represents the largest single capital project in the town’s history.
The average single-family home in Northborough is currently valued at $387,617, however, that will likely change before tax bills are calculated, as the town is in the midst of a revaluation process.
“I want it to be clear these are new taxes that voters, willingly, agreed to,” Coderre said of the school debt, adding that the budget responsibly addresses long-term obligations, including retiree health costs and the town’s long-range pavement management plan.
The operating budget contains two new full-time municipal positions: an assistant Department of Public Works (DPW) director and a light equipment operator. The DPW was among the departments that saw the largest reductions in staffing during the last recession, Coderre noted.
The budget also contains the first of eight payments of $212,000 the town will receive from Southborough after favorably settling a lawsuit over funding of work at Algonquin Regional High School.
“We’re very pleased to have resolved that in a manner favorable to the town,” Coderre said.
Voters will have the final say on the budget at the annual Town Meeting Monday, April 27.
The budget, which assumes state aid will remain level, has evolved over months of behind-the-scenes work and public meetings, Coderre noted.
Selectmen and others applauded the work of the administrator and his team on the town’s finances, efforts that have yielded the town a number of awards.
“We are the envy of many a town,” said Appropriations Committee Chair Elaine Kelly.