BOF details three years of salary histories
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Misinformation is on the Board of Finance’s mind. After three failed budget referendum, all preceded by reams of poorly informed or factually inaccurate Facebook posts about Stafford’s budget, and the Town is finally releasing information to combat some of the more egregious claims. At the June 25, 2026, Board of FInance meeting, Chair Steve Geryk noted that a number of documents would soon be available online.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there which does affect votes, and I know that for a fact because I’ve been told personally the reason why people have voted against the budget,” said Geryk. He added, “If you vote against the budget because…you don’t want your taxes to go up, I understand that too, but don’t do it with misinformation.”
While there are more documents to come, including about town-owned vehicles — another hot topic — let’s dive into salaries.
If you believe some of the more poorly informed comment threads, there have been huge salary increases for Town employees in recent years. Well, the Board of Finance has released a document that broke down the salary lines for the past three years. Geryk noted that in some cases highly paid employees who left were able to be replaced at lower salaries. First Selectmen has noted multiple times that the Director of Public Works was one of those positions. In other cases, there were some outliers where positions like the tax Collector and Town Clerk saw more significant raises. This, as was noted at a previous meeting, that when those positions went from being elected to hired, the contracts were renegotiated.
While it may be hard to tell from this chart, this year’s budget also includes the reduction of a Superintendent position in the General Highways budget which saves about $96,000.
On a related note, there are also colorful pie charts. We all know that the education budget is generally about two thirds of the entire budget, but the charts also illustrate that Debt Service and General Highways account for the biggest pieces of the Town side of the pie.
There's nothing particularly earth shattering here, but this visual representation is a good reminder of where the money really goes: schools, roads, and old debts that Stafford's current leaders can't do anything about.
