Fiscal fitness: Leaders tout ‘good news’ in wake of audit tumult
Officials say they’ve closed a roughly $170,000 accounting gap that surfaced amid a larger financial reckoning.
Town officials say they’ve closed a roughly $170,000 accounting gap that surfaced amid a larger reckoning about financial issues.
The mismatch between town and Acton Municipal Light Plant books prompted officials to commission a “forensic reconciliation” of 2023 and 2024 records.
The review wrapped last month, and both sides corrected their systems, CMLP Director Jason Bulger told The Acton Bridge.
Officials had incorrectly logged or omitted transactions in the town and light plant’s ledgers, Bulger said.
In one case, CMLP recorded in December 2024 a $60,000 deposit that the town didn’t book until January 2025, Bulger said. Because the light plant uses a calendar year cycle, the mistake counted toward the discrepancy.
Leaders have ticked through reforms that they say will help avoid repeat issues.
‘Clean’ CCHS report
The delayed process of cross-checking town and CMLP systems was one of several “material weaknesses” unearthed in new 2024 fiscal year audits. Auditors warned that broken accounting guardrails could have let errors go unnoticed.
The town’s Financial Audit Advisory Committee this month reviewed a “clean” audit for Acton-Carlisle High School that found no such problems.
The town and CMLP have ditched auditing firm CBIZ CPAs over a series of complaints, including delays, as audits dragged more than a year behind schedule.
The high school is sticking with CBIZ, but on a year-to-year contract, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Robert Conry told the audit panel. If there are more holdups, he said, “we’re not locked in.”
A CBIZ spokesperson has repeatedly declined to discuss “client matters.”
Separate from the audits, leaders are talking up the proposed school and municipal budgets as Town Meeting nears.
Town Meeting budget articles
Town budget: Article 10, $65.3 million
Acton Public Schools budget: Article 13, $48.9 million
Acton-Carlisle High School budget: Article 15, $26.8 million*
*The CCHS budget is funded through assessments to each member town. Acton’s share is shown.
Source: Expected motions via Town Meeting briefing book
Budget outlook
2027 spending plans will probably keep tax hikes “significantly” below the state’s annual cap of 2.5%, Town Manager Kerry Lafleur told The Bridge.
Although some criticism continues, Lafleur said the 2027 budget outlook “really is good news.”
Officials have watched municipalities including Arlington and Malden ask voters to approve tax hikes above the state’s limit this spring.
“Many communities across the region are confronting significant fiscal pressures,” Lafleur emailed Select Board members after Lexington officials slashed school staffing.
Trimming Acton’s town budget “wasn’t easy,” she told The Bridge, but officials managed a slimmed-down $65.3 million fiscal ’27 request.
Audit concerns are “important,” Select Board member Paul Boehm told The Bridge, but he thinks they’ve “eclipsed the more important story of fiscal sustainability.”
Incoming Select Board member Dean Banfield warned on the campaign trail that Acton will probably need a tax override within the next three years.
Boehm disagrees, saying he “can’t predict everything” but “there’s no indication that” an override is coming.
Voters will get the final say on budgets and other spending articles at Town Meeting, which begins April 27.
