ORANGE — The town reportedly faces “a death spiral,” in the words of a Finance Committee member, as it struggles to draft a proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 that can accommodate municipal needs as well as Orange’s assessment for Ralph C. Mahar Regional School.

The Selectboard held a joint meeting with the Finance Committee on Wednesday, where both boards expressed grave concerns over how the town will keep its head above water financially.

“I think this is the year that we lose a limb,” said Finance Committee member Kathy Reinig. “We may only lose one, but this is the year that something breaks. Now, our department heads do a great job and are creative, so maybe they’ll figure out a way for us to limp on, but it’s going to be limping — it’s not going to walking.”

The town faces a deficit of $1.7 million heading into FY26. Town Administrator Matthew Fortier said even if the town uses $300,000 in free cash, it will still need to find $1.4 million from somewhere.

The Mahar School Committee voted in April to approve a 4% budget increase for the next school year. That budget will head to Annual Town Meetings in Orange, Wendell, New Salem and Petersham, the four communities that send students to Mahar.

But Selectboard and Finance Committee members voiced frustration with the $673,611 assessment that the school is requesting from Orange, which constitutes a 12.8% increase.

“This is my personal opinion — if we cannot get a significant reduction of the increase requested by the regional school, I think we’re going to be in a situation where we are going to be having budget cuts to the rest of the departments in town by up to 15%,” said Finance Committee Chair Keith LaRiviere. “And personally, I don’t think that we can sustain that kind of a situation, where every year, in order to accommodate schools, we have to keep cutting and cutting and cutting from every other department. If that trend continues, I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the schools are going to bankrupt the town.

“So the only thing that I personally see as an alternative to draconian cuts to every other department is to ask the taxpayers for a Proposition 2½ override,” he added.

LaRiviere said he hates the thought of raising residents’ taxes, but the alternative is cutting services.

“It’s, unfortunately, a zero-sum game,” he said.

Finance Committee member Traeanna Smith agreed with LaRiviere.

“The education budget out-percentiles everything else in its funding,” she said.

Smith said she has three children and wants the school system adequately funded, “but we need to find some way to make it so that the funding is not going to … basically run our funds to nothing.”

Reinig mentioned that the FY25 town assessment was lower than that of the previous year. She also said the town must contribute its share of the requested assessment increase, as well as any portion not covered by the state. The amount of money a town contributes is determined by the number of students it sends to the school.

“And our student population went up relative to the other … towns,” Reinig explained.

She said she spoke with the offices of state Rep. Susannah Whipps and state Sen. Jo Comerford, and told them the town is in “a death spiral and we really need some help.”

Orange faced a similar budgeting problem last year that was made worse because it had accidentally paid $338,000 in fraudulent invoices over the summer of 2023.

Selectboard member Jane Peirce said she wants to reexamine the formula that is used to determine the town’s contributions to Mahar.

“Four percent overall is not that bad. It’s the formula and the [regional] agreement that’s really doing this to us,” she said. “We just can’t keep doing this. And we’re going to slam into a wall really soon where we’re going to be looking at vital functions that are necessary to run the town and provide services, basic services, and we’re not going to be able to do it.”

Peirce thinks a Proposition 2½ override “will be a hard sell,” but recommended asking voters anyway.

“This is such a big chunk of change; we’re not going to find it in one place anyway,” Peirce said.

Selectboard Chair Tom Smith was in agreement, saying the “same crap” happens every year.

“I’m all for education. I’m all for kids getting a good education,” he said. “But you have to live within your means.”

The Selectboard has scheduled a May 7 meeting to further discuss the fiscal year 2026 budget.

Annual Town Meetings in Orange are held the third Monday in June, unless it falls on Juneteenth.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or
413-930-4120.