BCAT News

Burlington Town Meeting has already approved funding for a new police station and a new Fox Hill Elementary School, but the Select Board is set to consider asking voters to approve debt exclusions for one or both projects in order to add some extra slack to the town’s budget. 

The maneuver is the result of a 1980 Massachusetts law that limits the amount of property tax revenue a community can raise to 2.5 percent of the prior year’s limit, plus new growth. A debt exclusion is a mechanism that allows towns to raise taxes more than that 2.5 percent only for the purpose of funding a specific project, often rare, important and expensive projects like new schools. Typically, funding for those capital projects is contingent on voters approving the debt exclusion. But in this case, because funding for the police station and Fox Hill has already been approved, the projects would move forward even if voters said no to a debt exclusion: It would simply give the town some extra wiggle room for other expenses. 

This is an issue with a lot of history: Throughout the process of developing the Fox Hill building and the police station projects, Burlington’s Ways and Means Committee considered the traditional approach of tying funding to a debt exclusion vote in the next local election. But ultimately it was determined that the town could fund both projects without debt exclusions. Now, Town Administrator Paul Sagarino says it’s not too late to revisit the issue. 

“[Assistant Town Administrator John [Danizio] and I were in favor of a traditional debt exclusion in which both projects would have been required to go to the ballot,” Sagarino said. “We had a town-wide discussion with our Ways and Means team, and they were correct that the projects did not require a debt exclusion to be approved. We agreed. They’ve done some great work on the numbers, but as two folks who have been intimately involved with putting together budgets for the last 20 years, we felt that down the road we would be in a better position if the debt was excluded at some point in the future.” 

The Select Board would need a 4/5 vote to put the debt exclusions on the ballot in the April, 2025 local election, and in Monday’s meeting, the five members were divided. 

“It’s a discussion we should have had a year ago,” said Select Board Vice Chair Mike Espejo. “The horse is out of the barn, so wouldn’t be in favor of trying to get one passed. I don’t think it would pass, I don’t think anyone would understand it, and I think it’s too little too late to discuss it.” 

“At this moment I am in favor of going to a debt exclusion,” said Select Board Member Jim Tigges. “It’s going to be the same dollar amount, it’s just where that money is coming from, and going to a debt exclusion gives us the protection for the operating budget.” 

Burlington is also pursuing rebuilding or updating its high school, a project that could have a much bigger price tag than either the police station or Fox Hill. That project’s funding is expected to be dependent on a debt exclusion. 

The board is expected to discuss the issue further in the coming months to make a decision on the ballot measures before April’s election.