SUNDERLAND — After several meetings spent deliberating, members of the Select Board and Finance Committee are unanimously recommending that voters approve a $800,000 override for the fiscal year 2027 budget.
For the override to go into effect, voters must pass it at the April 24 annual Town Meeting, along with a corresponding ballot question in the May 2 election. An override would allow the town to raise property taxes by 10.7%, or 8.2% above the state limit of 2.5%.
The last override that Sunderland voters passed came to $200,000 in 2019 for the fiscal year 2020 budget, following a string of failed overrides in 2017, 2011, 2009 and 1997.
According to Select Board Chair Nathaniel Waring’s “rough” calculations, the $800,000 override would raise the median property tax bill by about $547 per year and $45.50 per month. By comparison, increasing property taxes by the 2.5% that is allowed without an override would mean an $127.63 per year for taxpayers, or $10.69 per month.
The override amount still includes drops in most town departments’ budgets by 5% over the FY26 figures, not including the Sunderland Elementary School and town clerk budgets. At the Police Department, these 5% cuts would likely entail cutting part-time police officers, eliminating police coverage on holidays and reducing overnight coverage.
“Is it a great middle ground? No,” Finance Committee member Allison Dean said during Wednesday’s joint meeting between the Select Board and the Finance Committee. “But it is a middle ground.”
Former Select Board member Scott Bergeron said a former Finance Committee member once told him that budgets are a town’s fundamental documents and to make it compelling, not confusing.
On Wednesday night, Waring said the override includes Sunderland’s share of the South County Senior Center’s FY27 budget request of $125,751, which includes the cost of relocating to the 12,150-square-foot office building at 112 Amherst Road. Given that this cost is folded into the override vote, Waring said if the override fails to pass, the town would also be voting against funding the Senior Center’s relocation.
Over the next two joint meetings on March 30 and April 1, the Select Board and Finance Committee members will flesh out the exact town department budgets to reach a FY27 general fund budget number, Waring said over the phone on Friday.
The Personnel Committee requested that cost-of-living adjustments be a part of the base budget. Finance Committee member Joseph Elias made a motion to adopt 3% cost-of-living adjustments “for our hard-working employees.” The motion passed unanimously.
Christyl Drake-Tremblay made the same motion for the Selectboard, which also passed it unanimously.
Before a second joint meeting between the Selectboard and Finance Committee on Thursday night, the Sunderland Elementary School Committee approved a general fund budget of $3.95 million, which represents a 10% increase of $358,646 over FY26’s numbers.
To scale back the initial 18.3% increase to 10%, the approved budget involves reducing the physical education teacher’s hours, and combining the two kindergarten classes into one class and the two fourth grade classes into one class, which would lead to one kindergarten teacher, one fourth grade teacher and an instructional assistant being cut.
Before School Committee members voted, Chair Jessica Corwin said this budget depends on the town passing the override.
Earlier this month, Darius Modestow, superintendent of the Frontier Regional and Union 38 school districts, outlined cuts at Sunderland Elementary that would result from a flat budget, or 0% increase, from FY26, a potential budget if the override fails. According to Modestow, this reduced budget would entail eliminating art, music and the library, as well as a school adjustment counselor, an instructional assistant and a math interventionist.
Modestow said the override “is very much needed,” and a failed override would likely lead to “difficult coversations about priorities in the building.”
“We’re not cutting pots and pans,” he said. “These are people and positions and direct programming for the students.”
