Boxborough Finance Committee Votes to Fund $500,000 Fire Station Manager From Free Cash

BOXBOROUGH -- April 23, 2024, Boxborough Finance Committee unanimously shifts $500,000 fire station project-manager article to all free cash, saving average household an estimated $178 in next year's taxes. The committee voted Tuesday to change the funding source for Article 42, a $500,000 appropriation for an owner's project manager for the town's planned new fire station, from a split of raised-and-appropriated revenue and free cash to entirely free cash. The chair cited projected year-end inflows of more than $500,000 from the unspent reserve fund ($155,000), snow-and-ice account ($120,000), dispatch savings (approximately $150,000 conservatively), and additional local receipts flagged by town accountant Naomi at the previous night's Select Board meeting ($200,000 projected). The shift temporarily reduces the free cash balance from roughly 4.96 percent to 3.94 percent of the operating budget, below the committee's 5 percent policy floor, but members said anticipated July 1 inflows would quickly replenish the reserve. The committee also spent the majority of the meeting reviewing a Finance Committee town meeting presentation that puts the average FY25 single-family tax bill at $13,857, an increase of approximately $1,200, and warns that an operational override may be needed within one to three years as levy-limit and levy trend lines converge.