Writing about Lancaster, Massachusetts

  All three Nashoba District towns have now passed a debt exclusion to allow them to pay their shares of the debt for the high school project.   Like at the special town meeting last Monday, Lancaster's voter participation was conspicuously low: 16% versus 25 and 29% in Bolton and Stow.

Although 75% of Lancaster's voters at the special town meeting supported the school project, only 6% of the towns voters attended, half of the 11% in Stow and 12% in Bolton. In Stow's special election on Saturday, only 56% of voters supported the debt exemption -- a big drop in support from the 74% who supported the project at their Special Town Meeting .

National Grid announced that their default supplier rate will be 18.213 cents/kWh for November through June.   Lancaster has yet to announce the new rate for the Municipal Aggregation Program: the current contract expires in December.  The pressure is on: the Aggregation Program rate has actually been more expensive than the National Grid default supplier for 13 of the last 18 months.

Image generated by Adobe Firefly AI: "Dollar Signs Flying Around A High School" Interested in seeing an estimate of how the proposed high school project borrowing might change the taxes you pay in the future?  (Or are you just wondering what your FY2024 taxes will look like?)   This interactive spreadsheet will show you the actual tax history of your property since FY2010, plus a couple interesting estimates about the future.

"Auditor" Joshua Abrams, from his YouTube video A couple of "First Amendment Auditors" made their way to Lancaster; they failed to provoke anything sensational, and produced a pretty dull 45 minute recording of a beautiful Prescott building staffed with friendly people.

AI Generated Image ( midjourney.com ), prompt "Municipal Hammer of Justice"  On August 1st, the Attorney General's Office determined that Lancaster must release it's FY2023 tax abatement records and ordered the town to respond within 10 business days.  The Attorney General's Office has now had to issue 8 orders for the town to comply with the law since Town Administrator Kate Hodges start last year.

Orginal image made by the " Midjourney AI ."   Prompt "A bureaucrat at a desk in swirling chaos" After last years "Quinquennial Revaluation" led to some puzzling property valuations around town, many homeowners in Lancaster requested abatements.  How many, and how much was ultimately abated?  The town is required to maintain and share public records of approved abatements; I've spent 45 days  trying to get a copy of them.