West Brookfield Select Board Approves Town Meeting Warrants With $73,000 Gap Remaining

Select Board · Meeting of May 12, 2026

West Brookfield Select Board approves June town meeting warrants with roughly $73,000 in cuts still unresolved. Meeting May 12, the board worked through nearly every town department in a bid to close a fiscal year 2027 budget gap that began near $700,000 and has been reduced to approximately $73,000 through staff cuts, a roughly $100,000 health insurance savings, and line-by-line reductions including zeroing out board and committee clerk stipends, cutting the emergency management salary to $2,000, reducing the reserve fund to $25,000, and eliminating the WE program celebrations budget entirely. All three members surrendered their $1,500 annual stipends, saving $4,500.

Town Administrator Teresa Coffee confirmed a failed Proposition 2.5 override left the town with no additional revenue, and a School Committee representative, Dan Deficier, challenged whether the town intended to fund the school committee's approved $5.95 million West Brookfield assessment. The board also approved a $17,500 police and fire accident insurance policy through MIIA, $4,000 less than the prior year, and authorized Mass Clean Water Trust interim borrowing documents for the Wheaton Road water project at zero percent interest on a $6.2 million full authorization.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of May 12, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.