Town reserves

Free cash for schools

Kept above the 5% floor, $794,872 could be redirected, $135,401 short of the FY2028 gap (our arithmetic).

1 · The facts

  • $794,872

    free cash above 5% of the budget (ours)

    our estimate

  • $930,273

    the projected school gap, FY2028 (ours)

    our estimate

  • $135,401

    what the redirect leaves short that year (ours)

    our estimate

  • $2,197,945

    the projected gap, FY2030 (ours)

    our estimate

  • $817,576

    capital work lost, plan’s ranking held (ours)

    our estimate

  • $796,203

    capital work lost, queue re-ranked (ours)

    our estimate

  • 1.21 times

    the redirect, against free cash into capital, FY2026

    our estimate

  • $2,026,212

    certified if unspent money were at its average (ours)

    our estimate

  • 4.0%

    of the budget, in that case (ours)

    our estimate

2 · What it shows

  1. 1

    Kept to the 5% floor, $794,872 could be redirected; that is $135,401 short of the FY2028 gap.

  2. 2

    All $3,354,370, guideline ignored, covers FY2028 and FY2029; FY2030’s gap is $2,197,945.

  3. 3

    The redirect is 1.21 times what free cash gave capital in FY2026; $796,203 to $817,576 of work stops.

  4. 4

    Had unspent money sat at its 2021-2024 average, free cash would be 4.0% of the budget: under the floor.

What was said

  • “The options discussed included a multi-year override or utilizing one-time funds specifically free cash as a stopgap, however these funds should not be used in an operating budget, but as a one-time appropriation.”

    Select Board minutes, 2025-03-11

Sources

What changed

Version 15 — updated September 20, 2026