For the past few budget seasons, Abington has deftly walked a tight rope. It’s used conservative revenue estimates, modest spending increases, budget surpluses, and healthy state and federal aid to produce budgets that largely maintained services, addressed capital needs, and avoided layoffs.
The good fortune has worn off this year, however, as town budget writers are struggling to choose an approximate $1.2 million budget gap for the fiscal year starting July 1.
“We’re a victim of inflation just like everybody else and our revenues just don’t grow proportonally to our expenses,” Town Manager Scott Lambiase said.
Town officials are looking to strap together a series of solutions — including using one- time sources of revenue and changing the way it pays for trash removal — to make the numbers work.
Finance Committee Chairman Matt Salah agreed, calling it a “tough year” but was optimistic the town will find solutions.
“Making up the gap will be work, but it will probably happen without too much impact,” he said.
Budget Crisis Hits Mass. Towns
Abington is not alone with its budget challenges. A review of articles produced by our partner site, South Shore News, reveals that just about every local town is wrestling with a projected shortfall.
Norwell schools say their budget is $4 million short and are considering an override. Kingston is considering an override to fund emergency services. Halifax is grappling with a $2 million-plus deficit driven by school costs. Whitman’s budget writers are trying to close a $1.7 million gap and haven’t ruled out an override.
Hingham schools officials are eyeing possible layoffs and program cuts to stay within its given budget. The Silver Lake school district may need to ask its member towns for an override to fund a level services budget. Hanover schools say they need an additional $3.5 million to maintain services. Hanson says it may need to ask for a $2 million override.
And so on, and so on.
Budget built on 6% revenue growth
Lambiase is building the town’s budget based on an estimated $71.4 million in revenue for Fiscal Year 2026 — a figure that would represent a growth rate of about 6% over the current budget. That figure includes $44 million in property tax collections, $18 million in state dollars, and $6.6 million in so-called “local receipts,” which includes meals and cannabis taxes, ambulance fees, and Medicaid reimbursements.
The property tax portion is made up of what’s referred to as the “levy limit,” which is the amount of property taxes allowed to be raised under Proposition 2 1/2, plus new growth in the tax base generated by property renovations and developments. On top of this is the amount voters have approved in various overrides.
Abington’s levy limit for next year is approximately $40.7 million (which is a 3% year-over-year increase) plus $3.3 million from various overrides (which is actually a 3% year-over-year decrease).
The state’s two biggest buckets of aid is known as Ch.70, which is money given to schools, and Unrestricticted General Government Aid. The town also receives money annually from the state for veterans services, charter school tuition reimbursement, and payments for state-owned land. The draft state budget filed by Gov. Maura Healey last month contains about $18 million for Abington, or about a 2.5 percent increase in dollars. Multiple times over the past decade, Abington has seen a double digit increase in total state aid; this year’s amount is the lowest year-over-year increase since the Great Recession.
A hallmark of Abington budgets for several years now is that it assumes zero growth in local receipts — although the collections almost always actually grow (the COVID year being the lone exception). The reasoning for this strategy has been that local receipts can be volatile and dependent on larger economic conditions; by budgeting for flat growth, any increase is just a bonus.
Lambiase is budgeting $6.6 million in local receipts, which is about how much the town collected in FY24. The current budget for FY 25 was built on a local receipts estimate of $5.6 million. Lambiase said the town’s local receipt collections still haven’t fully rebounded to pre-COVID levels — Abington collected $8.9 million in local receipts in fiscal year 2021. Although meals and canabis tax collections have recovered, other revenue sources, such as permit fees, are still down.
The town also has free cash to spend. Free cash is essentially the town’s surplus from the previous budgetary year. Abington finished the FY24 fiscal year with $2.6 million in free cash, it’s highest amount ever. Historically, Abington places a portion of its surplus in its rainy day fund, uses another portion to pay its snow and ice removal bill, and the remaining amount pays for capital spending. However, Lambiase is open to using some of that surplus to balance next year’s budget.
Schools drop request for more teachers
The school department budget makes up more than half of Abington’s budget. This year Abington Schools are requesting $32.3 million to educate the town’s 2,000 students.
The funding request represents a 4% increase over the current year, with the increase driven by contractual obligations and transportation costs.
Superintendent Felicia Moschella initially requested for several new positions but agreed to withdraw the request and make do with current staffing levels. For example, instead of hiring a new fifth grade teacher for the school district’s largest grade, Moschella said they’ll reassign from existing staff.
Transportation costs will increase by about $100,00 next year, according to the school department’s budget. The cost of upgrading laptops and curriculum materials will be paid for through free cash.
Police still wrestling with staffing years later
More than five years after police leadership sounded the alarm about staffing issues, the Abington Police Department continues to find it a challenge to hire qualified officers and fill shifts.
Police Chief John Bonney told the Finance Committee recently that he has just 10 patrolmen in uniform, plus five sergeants, two lieutenants, and a deputy chief. A handful of other officers are either injured or serving overseas. Historically, Abington Police has been budgeted for 30 total patrolmen and superior officers, although they haven’t had a full roster in several years. This year they’re budgeted for 23 members.
Despite a better contract and benefits, and new leadership, the department is still focused on filling vacancies and retaining the ones they have. Bonney said one officer just left for a job in Quincy, and amother is about to move to Florida. The staffing problems mean more forced overtime, which has been cited as one cause for the continuing turnover. And the state civil service candidate pool has been limited.
Three cadets will graduate from the police academy next month and then spend the next several months training alongside more experienced officers before being able to patrol on their own. Another cadet will start the police academy later this spring, Bonney told the Select Board last week. He said town voters will be asked at the Annual Town Election to approve a charter change that allows the department to leave the state civil service program, which town officials say has hindered its ability to recruit and fill open roles.
Bonney said he plans on filling five open positions in the coming year. He also asked for funding for two other positions, but likely won’t receive them as the town struggles to balance the budget without cutting services or staff elsewhere. Bonney told the Finance Committee that if funding for additional positions is approved, and voters approve the departure from civil service, the department could go on a hiring spree and bring the department’s ranks close to fully staffed.
One position this year will be funded with a three-year federal grant.
Promised changes coming to trash program
Town Manager Scott Lambiase stood before Town Meeting last year and teased that major changes were coming to the way the town pays for trash removal.
Now costing more than $1.2 million, the cost has grown more than 30% over the past decade with no slow down on the horizon.
Details are still being ironed out. But the broad strokes is that the town will be moving to a fee-based program where property owners receive a quarterly bill to pay for trash removal.
By pulling the cost of trash removal out of the regular budget and moving it to a fee-based system, the town will be able to balance its budget this year, said Lambiase.
Town leaders are planning to phase in the cost of trash removal; the first year will be covered entirely through the use of free cash. Residents will pay a higher percentage in years two and three, before carrying the full cost in year four. The exact plans are still being worked out, but will be made public prior to Town Meeting, Donovan said.
Abington voters twice approved tax overrides to cover the cost of trash pickup, first in 1992 for $595,000 and most recently in 2008 for $655,000.
Lambiase said Abington is one of the few towns in the region that pays for trash out of the operating budget instead of a pay-as-you-throw model, a fee-based operation, or privatizing it altogether.
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