SOUTH HADLEY — In stark contrast to last spring’s failed Proposition 2½ override that sparked intense debate among South Hadley residents, a second, smaller override request set for a vote on Tuesday is drawing far less reaction.
Besides a few lawn signs and the occasional social media post, the conversation about the town’s $3.5 million override request on Tuesday is nearly nonexistent.
“Its kind of been deafly silent,” said Jeff Cyr, Select Board chair, clarifying that he speaks on his own behalf. “It’s a whole different environment than on the original vote. It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of energy either way.”
It was a much different scene in April leading up to $9 million and $11 million override votes when lawn signs peppered neighborhood streets and residents sounded off on Facebook daily. The citizen-run “yes” campaign called Save South Hadley and “no” group called Alliance for Fair Taxes set up tables at popular town destinations and submitted letters to their local papers.
Even so, the stakes remain the same. After voters rejected the previous override, the South Hadley Select Board voted 3-2 to put a smaller override request on the ballot to help stabilize the budget for fiscal years 2027 to 2029 and to help mitigate a structural budget deficit.
Polls open on Tuesday’s Primary Day at 7 a.m. in South Hadley High School, 153 Newton St, and close at 8 p.m.
The override funds will support a 3% operational increase for the school department to turn around a $3 million school choice deficit partially driving the town’s shortfall. Two Department of Public Works positions and one police officer would be restored, and all other town staffing would remain consistent. The money would also replenish the $1.7 million of reserves used to pad the budget this year, which can then help fund future fiscal years.
The override begins in the current fiscal year, so if it passes, residents would see its impact on the next two property tax bills. According to the Division of Local Services Property Tax Impact calculator, the average single-family home valued at $417,106 would pay an additional $559 in taxes each year.
Town Administrator Lisa Wong told the Select Board at its Aug. 11 meeting that if the override fails, she would move the remaining $2 million in reserves to the current year’s budget. Even doing so, however, she said the schools would need to be cut $1 million out of its budget, while the town would trim $500,000.
Wong compared South Hadley’s town department budgets and staff levels to Belchertown, Easthampton, Ludlow, Longmeadow, East Longmeadow and Wilbraham, finding that nearly every other town had more staff and larger budget allocations across all departments.
In particular, South Hadley had at least 10 fewer DPW positions and was the only confirmed department budget under $2 million among the surveyed towns.
“We’re the lowest funded and the lowest staffed and we’re potentially going even lower,” Wong said.
At the beginning of the month, the Division of Labor Services Financial Management Resource Bureau began its audit of South Hadley’s financial staff and structure. Wong said the Bureau has already interviewed staff in both Fire Districts and Water Districts, spoken to her and the treasure/assessor and requested hundreds of documents.
Over the next couple months, the audit will review software, operations and personnel to suggest the creation of a finance department and shared services between the town, schools and districts.
With the audit ongoing, the feasibility of town finances continues to drag. Wong said school choice expenses came in $750,000 higher than last year. That is a 20% increase of students choosing to leave South Hadley. In previous meetings, Superintendent Jennifer Voyik said she knew more students had left the district after the $9 million and $11 million override votes failed and threatened all extracurriculars in the district.
These cuts were narrowly avoided when Town Meeting approved $1.7 million in free cash to level-fund the school budget and maintain minimum library funding. With some of the free cash, the School Department continued its programs and created four new positions to bring in revenue and address family’s reasons for leaving the district.
Cyr credits the silence leading up to Tuesday’s vote to the lack of tangible changes in South Hadley residents’ lives. The DPW employees set to leave through attrition are still employed. South Hadley Schools are still offering sports and extracurriculars. Fundraising efforts and grant funding maintained the spray parks for the summer.
“People aren’t seeing the pain,” he said.
