BOF reduces budget proposal by $100k

On June 2, 2026, Stafford voters once again defeated the proposed budget for FY 2026-2027 at referendum, and shortly thereafter the Board of Finance (BOF) began debating next steps. 

To recap, the Town was looking to pass a budget of $48,271,028. 

$31,710,968 was for the Board of Education, $11,983,276 was for the Board of Selectmen, and $573,883 was for the library. Another $3,014,956 is for debt service.

Only $33,252,381 was to be raised from taxes.

By the end of the BOF meeting, the board decided to cut another $100,000 from the overall budget in acknowledgement of the will of the voters, while still balancing the needs of the Town. That conclusion, however, was not reached without much discussion.

Shelly Hurchala West made the final motion that ultimately passed and she suggested the cuts be made as follows:. 

• $64,000 from the BOE 

• $34,000 from the BOS

• $2,000 from the library 

That reduction results in a new proposed Mill Rate of 25.59.

While the motion passed, it was a bit of a mixed vote. West (D), Dave Walsh (D), Rob Proulx (R), and Steve Geryk (an Independent who fills a Republican seat) voted yes on the motion. Harold Blake Hatch (D) and Tony Pellegrino (R) voted against it. Pellegrino’s vote was swayed at the last minute by a question from Donna Wright, a BOF alternate who was not seated at the time. 

Pellegrino had, earlier in the discussion, suggested leaving the budget as-is. He argued that the budget request was not unreasonable and is barely keeping up with inflation, and pointed to misinformation being spread online as a problem. BOF Chair Geryk made an argument that the board should acknowledge the will of the voters, and that having another referendum fail could cause more stress for the BOE and BOS. 

Members of the board suggested that it is hard to know what voters are really thinking, and suggested adding questions about whether the budgets were too low or too high could help steer the BOF’s action in the future. Wright brought this issue up again before the seated members of the board voted. She asked why the board was cutting if they didn’t feel they truly understood the mandate from the people, and volunteered to pay the roughly $3,000 for the next referendum to test it. She swayed Pellegrino, but the motion still passed. 

What if the budget stayed flat?

“It is almost more detrimental, to us as a district, not having a budget at this point in June…than it honestly is at this point for any type of reduction,” said Superintendent of Schools Scott Sugarman. In fact, not knowing what the budget is actually costs money. He said that on May 1 of each year, the district must send out letters to the non-tenure staff saying whether or not they will be renewed. If they aren’t renewed, a termination procedure has to be followed. It can trigger unemployment claims. The lack of budget clarity is leaving about 30 non-tenured staff without answers on whehter or not they will be recalled next year, according to Sugarman.

Sugarman also spoke to what would happen if, theoretically, the BOE’s budget stayed flat. 

“It is not pretty,” he said. 

Pre-Kindergarten and middle school athletics would be gone. Multiple directors would lose their jobs, and two positions at the secondary level would be reduced. The district would also have to restructure the multi-tiered system of support programming (MTSS) which serves struggling students. 

“And all of that still would not get us to that number,” said Sugarman.  

And here’s the kicker: the Town’s Interim CFO Lynn Nenni said that when she calculates the Mill Rate based on a flat-funded budget with this year's revenue it only drops to 24.90. That is not even a full Mill less than the 25.66 that was up for a vote on Tuesday, meaning tax payers would save very little. So while the impact on tax bills might be small, the impact on services could be huge.

“Regardless of what the budget is, if we freeze it at last year, there’s still tax increases…I don’t know if everyone understands that,” said Pellegrino. (Learn more about why here—skip to the last section.)

What’s next?

So, at the end of the meeting, this reporter was still a bit confused about what this all means moving forward. The new fiscal year begins on July 1, 2026. The tax collector needs to submit all of her information by June 16 in order to have tax bills go out on time. The earliest Stafford would be able to have another referendum is June 22, 2026. 

In a normal year, the Town could just send out bills at its current Mill Rate, but Stafford’s current Mill Rate is 38.59. If people were taxed on their new property values at that rate, there would be rioting in the streets. So, now what?

That seemed to be a question many people were left wondering, though there is a June 3, 2026 Board of Selectmen meeting where the details will likely be hammered out. Stay tuned to find out what happens next.

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