Hatfield Select Board Warns First-Ever Budget Override May Be Needed in FY23

HATFIELD -- March 29, 2022, Hatfield Select Board signals a possible first-ever general operating override as fiscal year 2023 budget pressure builds. Meeting March 29, Chair Luke Longstreeth, Member Julia Frisby, and Member Edmund Jaworski reviewed a draft annual town meeting warrant that includes a $12 million wastewater project debt exclusion and flagged that a separate Proposition 2½ operating override question would have to reach Town Clerk Lydia by April 12 if placed on the May ballot, less than two weeks away at the time of the meeting. The assessors presented a level-funded FY23 budget with new growth estimated at roughly $61,000 to $62,000, consistent with FY21 actual new growth of $62,667, while most other department budgets showed unavoidable increases in utilities, personnel, and software costs. Longstreeth noted Hatfield carries the second-lowest property tax rate in Hampshire County, at approximately $13 per thousand, and said the town has never passed a general operating override: "It's not a decision any of us will make lightly." The warrant must be signed no later than April 26.