Boxborough Finance Committee Approves Dozens of FY25 Budgets, Trims Vocational School Lines

BOXBOROUGH -- February 27, 2024, Boxborough Finance Committee approves bulk of FY25 operating budget at $27.9 million, a 0.6 percent increase. The eight-member panel voted unanimously on more than a dozen department budgets at its February 27 hybrid meeting, including a $1,738,723 police budget and a $71,493 dispatch budget that is down more than $400,000 from prior years following the town's exit from regional dispatch. The committee cut the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical School tuition line from $120,000 to $47,500 to reflect one confirmed student, after noting that six Boxborough applicants face long odds on vocational school wait lists as non-member-town students. The non-school town operating budget of $11,955,275 represents a 3.74 percent increase, leaving a levy buffer of approximately $207,355. Members flagged a structural $100,000 annual deficit at the transfer station, where about 675 sticker holders pay $150 annually but the town spends $197,500 in tipping fees alone, not counting the two employees who work there.