PEPPERELL — Special Town Meeting voters took the first step to passing a nearly $3 million override of tax limits imposed by Proposition 2½ on April 8.
Politics
House proposes $57.9B budget for new fiscal reality
BOSTON — House Democrats on Wednesday rolled out a $57.9 billion state budget for fiscal year 2025 that mirrors many of Gov. Maura Healey’s ideas for tapping new funding sources while calling for a slightly smaller spending increase. The proposal set for debate in two weeks would increase spending by about $1.9 billion, or 3.3%, […]
Editorial: Towns face tough decisions in wake of override vetoes
Are we about to relive some 1980s “nostalgia” that those of a certain age would sooner forget? For municipal and school department employees, those halcyon days were anything but. Proposition 2½, which Massachusetts enacted in 1982, limits the amount of revenue a community can raise from property taxes annually to 2.5% above the previous year’s […]
Massachusetts conservatives knock ‘irresponsible spending’ on state-funded shelters
Gov. Maura Healey has turned to 76 hotels and motels to bulk up the number of beds available under the state’s emergency shelter program. Dozens of contracts with social service organizations show nights at those sites can often run up to $300, a cost that includes food and supportive services.
Fitchburg Library expansion set to begin this year
FITCHBURG.—The city will be moving forward this year on the Public Library expansion project after the construction timeline had been briefly delayed due to the discovery of a structural issue. An effort to create a renewed community resource and destination for the next several decades, the library project is one of many large-scale projects that […]
Housing families in state-funded shelters in Mass. can cost taxpayers $300 a night
Nightly rates to house homeless families in hotels and motels can run hundreds of dollars, with agencies often baking in the cost of food and supportive services into the bill they hand to the state, according to contracts reviewed by the Herald.
