Writing about Lancaster, Massachusetts

                                      Social media has been a pitfall for Lancaster officials in the recent past.  Last July, Select Board Member Jason Allison found himself the target of questions after pulling the town administrator and Planning Board in a Facebook argument in which he desired to be declared "right."

  Photo by regularguy.eth on Unsplash Since 2021 the Town of Lancaster has paid $17,000/year for use of OpenGov's budgeting and planning package .   It has never been implemented, and at the moment there's no intention to ever use it.  The town has a three year contract with OpenGov that will end next June.  

  Photo by Amy Elting on Unsplash    National Grid announced their summer electric-supply rate yesterday, for the six months starting in May.  The supply rate for residential customers will drop to 14.2 cents/kWh.  On the other hand, if you're a member of Lancaster's Municipal Aggregation program you'll pay 29.984 cents/kWh for supply through June.    After that, you'll pay a 14.781 cent/kWh supply rate into December.   Boston Globe:  National Grid has Good News About Electricity Rates Typically Municipal Aggregation programs are able to offer savings over the National Grid default supplier:  National Grid ostensibly doesn't make any profit on supply, but the state requires them to sign new contracts every six months.    Municipal Aggregation programs have the flexibility to sign much longer contracts:  from 2019-2021 Lancaster benefited from a three year contract at 9.978 cents/kWh cut bills a bit. It's been tough sledding for the Municipal Aggregation program

This all refers to the updated "Lancaster FY2024 Budget Book" released on Monday, March 6th. ( LINK )    The FY2024 budget book and executive summary suggest that the town approve an override to increase the FY2024 levy limit by $1.3 million.   One of the estimates in that budget is the FY2024 levy limit: a component of that limit is an adjustment for "New Growth", and the value currently used as a placeholder would be 33% lower than the lowest adjustment in the past 20 years.     Because of that very conservative estimate, the budget may be underestimating the FY2024 levy limit and overstating the override needed for the FY2024 budget. The calculation for the levy limit in the current fiscal year is included on page 135 of the budget book: The town's levy limit is increased 2.5% each year.  The "new growth" adjustment is added to that:  the town calculates the assessment it would have collected from the increase in the town's tax base from new co

  Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash The town released an updated "FY2024 Budget Book" on Monday, March 6th.   It corrected some of the resident-reported errors that were found in the March 3rd version.  ( LINK )    The final page of the budget book is a projection of next year's tax rate, and the impact on our real estate taxes of a budget that anticipates approval of a $1.3 million levy limit override.  The projection shows an $18.20 per $1,000 tax rate,  up from $17.19 this year.    According to the "executive summary" this is meant to show the "Estimated New Tax Liability,"  but if that's the case it's a miscalculation. The new "3/6 Version" of the budget book seems to show the proposed FY2024 tax levy on page 34.  There are two lines listing levy amounts: "Real Estate & Property Tax INSIDE"   $21,779,615   (an increase of $766,480 over FY2023)  That seems to reflect last year's maximum allowed levy -- $21,