There is no FY28 recommended budget yet. Town Manager John Mangiaratti told the Select Board on September 14 that the book is scheduled for January 11, 2027. Before that: a Select Board workshop on December 7, joint workshops on January 19, and a March 4 handoff to the Finance Committee. That calendar is from The Acton Exchange's notes of the meeting, not from a budget PDF, because the PDF does not exist.
What he has put on the table so far, from the same paper's notes of three meetings:
- July 20. Planning for FY28 had started with an anticipated deficit of $3.4 million. He called that only somewhat higher than the hole the town usually opens the season with. The town had beaten its FY26 revenue guess by more than $1 million, mostly investment income and local receipts, and he said not to count on the investment income coming back. Chair Alissa Nicol said the town was not asking for an operating override, and that about $1.2 million of levy capacity was still unused. July 20 notes.
- September 15. At Finance Committee, the projected deficit was described as having moved from about $3.4 million to about $2.7 million, mostly on the school side, and not as a number anyone should carve in stone. September 15 notes.
- September 29. Mangiaratti told FinCom that local receipts had been coming in almost $2 million over projections in recent years, including investment income of $840,000 in the most recent year. He did not want that treated as next year's spending money. His recommendation was capital, stabilization, and long-term liabilities. September 29 notes.
Dean Charter, at the September 14 Select Board meeting: "I don't think an override is imminent."
The town's own budget page still tops out at the FY27 recommendation. When the January 11 book is posted, this page gets those figures and the link to the PDF. Until then, these are meeting notes, and meeting notes are not the budget.