State budget includes local aid hike, $150K-plus for Acton initiatives
The boost makes this fall’s projected tax increase “a little bit less” than what officials projected at Town Meeting.
Acton is getting more than officials expected from the state’s 2027 fiscal year budget.
The town and local organizations are also celebrating more than $150,000 in earmarks to pay for line items including playground equipment and emergency healthcare planning.
“I’m glad we were able to come through,” state Sen. Michael Barrett said in a statement touting $30,000 to OARS Inc. for water quality monitoring in area rivers.
Gov. Maura Healey signed the $63.4 billion budget into law on July 9 after months of Beacon Hill negotiations.
A state aid boost makes this fall’s projected tax increase “a little bit less” than the 1.96% that officials projected at Town Meeting, Town Manager Kerry Lafleur told the Select Board.
Beyond the $30,000 OARS payout, local earmarks include:
- $50,000 for the Acton-based non-profit Quiet Communities, which works to reduce noise pollution.
- $50,000 to Emerson Hospital to boost its emergency behavioral healthcare capacity.
- $25,000 toward an Alcott Elementary School playground replacement.
Administrators previewed Alcott plans this spring after another playground initiative at the Thoreau School.
Emerson is planning a massive campus overhaul. A spokesperson said state help will “support ongoing planning efforts,” including “preparation for a modern emergency department with dedicated space for emergency pediatric and adult behavioral health care services.”
The process started in January when Healey filed her proposed spending package. Town leaders wrote their plans based on local aid estimates in Healey’s bill.
Legislators retooled the plan and sent a budget back to Healey’s desk with extra aid.
Acton is getting an additional $156,145 in K-8 school funding and $48,499 in extra general government help.
Acton-Carlisle High School will get just over $100,000 more than what Healey estimated in January.
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Most town revenue comes from property taxes. Six-figure state adjustments are fractional against Acton’s nearly $150 million in expected fiscal ’27 spending.
The bump is still a gain on the margins, and budget conversations have hinged on comparatively small-dollar items in recent years, like the estimated $44,000 cost of Sunday hours at the Acton Free Public Library.
“For sure, it could be a net positive to the town,” Select Board Chair Wendy Rovelli told The Acton Bridge.
Other funding
The fiscal ’27 budget followed just under a month after Healey approved a plan for $1.56 billion, primarily raised through Massachusetts’ “Millionaires Tax.”
That package routed $350,000 to Acton programs via four separate earmarks and reserved additional money to help offset this past winter’s snow removal costs.
Acton officials have since turned attention to an economic development bond bill for $500,000 to study the effects of MCI-Acton prison redevelopment and a Route 2 rotary replacement.
Select Board member Paul Boehm told The Bridge that the request is rooted in “the shortcomings” of planning to date for those undertakings.
He said he worried after a public meeting in June that officials were “missing the larger issue of traffic within town” as new apartment projects also take shape on Forest Ridge Road, Baker Avenue, and Powder Mill Road in Acton near the Acton line.
He’s pushing for a holistic review and thinks this is “a little bit of a missing piece” to determine how Acton might manage new traffic.
Officials said state Rep. Simon Cataldo helped secure funding in a House version of the bond bill.
Even if the allocation is signed into law, it’s not a traditional earmark, Rovelli warned colleagues in a recent email, and Acton leaders would have to keep working with Cataldo in hopes that Healey agrees to borrow money on the town’s behalf.
The bill was still pending in the legislature as of press time.
Trace Salzbrenner contributed reporting.
