One resident, the town's own documents, and a rule about what counts as evidence.
lunenburgbudgetproject.org — written by the Lunenburg Budget Project, an independent tool for residents. Not affiliated with the Town of Lunenburg, the School Committee or the school district.
Who I am
I'm TJ Loughlin. I've owned a home in Lunenburg since 2016, and I have two kids in the schools — one at the middle school, one at the high school. Both are athletes and both take the academic side seriously. My wife is a paraprofessional in the district.
I'm the current president of Lunenburg Youth Baseball and Softball. I've been following the town's budgets since the first year of a major deficit — the year we landed the override — and I was part of the citizens' group behind it. Two years ago I was the resident who put an override on the Town Meeting warrant.
Outside all this I work in the tech industry and I train MMA.
Why, and the rule
I built this because data is how I'd rather make a decision — and because most budget arguments turn on a figure somebody half-remembers.
Everything here comes from documents I actually hold, published by the town, the district or the state, or obtained by records request. If I can't get the document behind a figure, it doesn't go on the site. Projections are the one exception — no document exists for a year that hasn't happened — and they're labelled wherever they appear.
A lot simply isn't published. No dataset shows how the schools' costs have actually moved, only what was budgeted. Requests are out; what we cannot answer lists the rest.
On being wrong
This doesn't claim every calculation is right — it claims every one is shown, so it can be checked. Find a discrepancy and I want to hear about it.
