Holden Town Meeting Approves $133 Million School Budget Under Override Authority

HOLDEN — June 8, 2026 — Holden's Annual Town Meeting approved a $133 million Wachusett Regional School District budget and a full slate of municipal spending articles Monday night, acting on the town's first Proposition 2.5 property tax override in 33 years. Finance Committee Chair Paul Challenger told the roughly 200-plus residents in attendance that the override authorized up to $5.5 million in new tax capacity, of which the town is using $3.1 million — producing an 11.8 percent property tax increase, roughly $879 annually for the owner of a home assessed at the town's average of $554,000. The district-wide education budget of $133,070,587, approved under Article 22, reflects a 3.1 percent increase driven largely by a $1.2 million rise in the state-mandated minimum contribution Holden must pay, even as state aid to Wachusett grew by only 1.8 percent — a cost shift Challenger called "a direct shift of cost from the state to the towns." The capital budget of $2,710,880, roughly half of last year's, included $587,500 in borrowing to relocate town offices out of the 1797-era Starbard Building into the Dawson Recreation pool complex. The meeting closed with a citizen's petition, filed by resident Hannah Lipper, to support a new Massachusetts state flag and seal; a motion to postpone it indefinitely failed on a standing count, 53 to 125, and the main resolution passed by a voice majority, directing the town clerk to notify state Representative Kim Ferguson and Senator Peter Durant.