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Proposition 2½ is a Massachusetts law from 1980 that caps how much a town can increase property taxes each year. Without voter approval, the total tax revenue (a.k.a. "tax levy") can't go up by more than 2.5% annually. Think of it as a diet for taxes—strict portion control unless we all agree it's time for a bigger slice.
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An override is when the town collectively agrees to raise the tax levy beyond that 2.5% cap to fund essential services—like schools, public safety, and infrastructure. It's not a free-for-all; it's a carefully considered decision that requires us all to agree that we must invest more in our community. Once approved, this new amount becomes the baseline for future budgets.
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Our town's expenses—like our Fire Department, educating our kids, keeping streets safe, and maintaining roads—have outpaced the modest 2.5% annual tax increase allowed by Proposition 2½. Costs have risen due to inflation, increased demand for services, and, frankly, the rising price of everything from fuel to pencils. Without an override, we'll face cuts that could deeply affect the quality of life in Belchertown.
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No. This override is to address our revenue problem. As a result of inflation, our town cannot afford what we once did. This is about keeping what we have… our firefighters, our police, and our teachers.
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About 1.37 a day per household. In other words, $42/month per household.
Click here for a calculator that will determine what it will cost your household.
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One of the lowest, on average our property taxes are 1.45% of House Value (surrounding towns average 1.56).
Even with the override, Belchertown's property taxes would remain competitive with neighboring communities. We understand that no one loves paying taxes, but investing in our town keeps property values stable and makes Belchertown an attractive place to live.
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The additional funds will be allocated to maintain and enhance essential town services. Specifically, ensuring adequate public safety staffing, incorporating grant-based salaries for firefighters into the operating budget, and addressing infrastructure needs.
This includes preventing layoffs in our schools, providing necessary time to explore and plan for regionalization and reorganization, avoiding the closure of CHCS Pool, preserving our performing arts programs, maintaining the foreign language course offerings, avoid cuts to athletics, and after school clubs.
Detailed budget plans are available for those who love diving into the numbers.
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Belchertown provides their budget overview and line-item budgets here.
Belchertown Public Schools provide their budget documents here.
Additionally, school committee and town meetings provide a platform for residents to voice concerns, ask questions, and stay informed about how funds are allocated and spent.
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Without the override, the town will face significant budget shortfalls.
Belchertown will be forced to defer maintenance on infrastructure (est. $18M), lack a solution for the expiration of grant-funded positions at our Fire Department, and reduce access to public safety services.
This will lead to 30+ layoffs in our schools, the closure of Cold Spring School - rushed grade reorganization, the closure of CHCS Pool, cuts to performing arts programs, cuts to foreign language , cuts to athletics, and fewer after school clubs.
In short, the quality of services that make Belchertown a great place to live will diminish.
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Town Election - May 19th: Polls Open @ 9AM.
Town Meeting - May 31st @ 8:30AM.
Early voting begins on May 7th.
The deadline to register to vote is April 25th (10 days before an election or town meeting).
If you're interested in voting by mail, applications are available at the town clerk's office or on the town's website. Be sure to request your mail-in ballot well in advance to ensure your vote counts.
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We understand that any tax increase can be a burden. There are tax relief programs available for eligible seniors, veterans, surviving spouses, and low-income residents. We encourage those who might be impacted to explore these options and reach out to the town assessor's office for more information.
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We are working on it. Put simply, all of those efforts will take time. Time we just don’t have.
Currently, there is a Creative Economy Initiative working to: “strengthen community identity while also supporting existing and emerging businesses, increasing tourism, and providing a pathway to funding for those spaces and events that in turn promote economic development, solidify a sense of place, and strengthen quality of life.”
The town continues to seek grants and encourage responsible commercial development, but these sources are often unpredictable and restricted in use. An override provides a stable and reliable source of funding to meet the town's immediate and ongoing needs.
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While the override addresses our current financial challenges, future needs may arise as the town grows and evolves. However, approving this override now positions us on firmer financial footing and reduces the likelihood of facing similar shortfalls in the immediate future.
It also depends on the overall economy. The override process was created so that residents could adjust the size of their town budgets to better cope with high inflation. It is important to understand that the Proposition 2½ tax cap was never intended to imply that communities exceeding this limit are overspending. Instead, it was designed as a mechanism to give taxpayers the authority to decide whether additional taxes should be raised in a given year.
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Many would agree that the way the state calculates how inflation is set in the education funding formula is pretty broken.
Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that the state will have a solution for that funding formula this year (based on e-mail correspondences with state leaders). They’ve begun talks on changing it, but the last time they revised the formula it took them five years.
Additionally, Belchertown qualifies for the safety net built into Ch. 70’s hold harmless clause:
No district can receive less state education funding than it got the year before.
So technically, Belchertown is already getting more than we would otherwise qualify for. This applies to most districts in Massachusetts (232 of the 319 school districts received the minimum this year).
Which is further evidence that this formula is simply broken. Unfortunately, the pace of revising Ch. 70 is out of our hands - we do have control over the town’s budget and thus that is where we must focus.
For additional information: Tracy O’Connell Novick (specialist on finance and state education fuding) recently presented: 70 Minutes on Ch. 70 for Belchertown residents. (Ch. 70 is the MA law that created the funding formula that determine how much money each school district gets).