West Brookfield Finance Committee finds $717,000 gap it cannot close without override

Finance Committee · Meeting of April 15, 2026

West Brookfield's Finance Committee mapped a $717,323 budget gap Wednesday that officials say cannot be closed without a Proposition 2½ override on the May 5 ballot. Town Accountant Teresa presented a spending plan totaling $10,564,384 against available revenues, noting that the school assessment alone accounts for more than half of all operating expenses, leaving roughly $4 million subject to cuts — a pool that would require a 20 percent reduction to fill the hole. The committee spent more than an hour working through a department-by-department exercise and reached only $575,000 in hypothetical reductions, a scenario that included eliminating a police officer, cutting highway staffing by $40,000, dropping the computer technology contract by $27,000, and reducing library hours below the state accreditation threshold.

"There is no place to go in this budget to find $700,000. There simply is not," one member said. The $717,323 figure does not include an estimated $200,000 to maintain the elementary school building if it closes, pushing the real gap toward $1 million.

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Source: the Finance Committee meeting of April 15, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.