Hudson’s Budget Committee is intentionally aiming to make the town’s default budget as “painful” as possible for the 2027-2028 fiscal year, a strategy officials say reflects rising costs the town isn’t contractually obligated to cover.
The Committee met on July 22 to determine the drafting process for the upcoming fiscal year.
“What are we doing with the default budget?” asked Town Administrator Roy Sorenson.
Committee member and default subcommittee member Shawn Jasper said he was in active discussion with school and town officials.
“Default budgets are intended to be painful. You look at what goes into default, and it’s contractual obligations,” said Jasper. “On the school side we have things we are legally obligated to do beyond that, like anything related to special education. That’s mandated by the state, we have to provide the transportation and we have to provide the tuition. That is a number that’s not going to be known until school starts.”
He noted that some numbers, like healthcare costs, were more difficult to determine when looking at the default figures.
“That healthcare number is not a contractual obligation,” added Jasper, referring to recent changes to default calculations made at the state level. “That’s going to be, in my opinion, the big thing that’s going to change. Healthcare is what it was, just like electricity, just like fuel, just like any other thing we have to keep the lights on, we have to do that, but it’s not a contractual obligation.”
Committee member Kevin Walsh questioned exactly what the obligations would be regarding health insurance if a default budget is approved.
“You take the previous year, which has the insurance built in, that carries over, and you make the adjustment based on whatever the contract says monetarily, based on whatever their pay might be, and we give a separate breakout for the health insurance increase,” explained Sorenson, who indicated that any increased costs would need to come from other areas of the school budget.
He planned to have a report ready by the Budget Committee’s next meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 2.
Jasper and several other members reiterated the need for a “painful” default budget, which serves as the alternative if a budget is rejected during the annual March election.
“How do we make this painful thing come back into existence if in fact 90% of the operating budget is obligated?” asked Committee member Bill Cole. “We often have an operating budget and a default budget that is a difference without a distinction.”
Jasper noted that the pain comes from a lack of increase on items like healthcare, electricity, liability insurance, and maintenance.
“That number on the default budget is basically none of that stuff rolling up,” he said. “You’ve got to run all of the police cars, fire trucks, school buses and everything, and you’re going to be doing that at the previous year’s price when gas is up a buck-and-a-half. That’s where the pain is.”
There were other questions about where out-of-budget items fit in, though the Town Administrator and others noted that such items typically appear on the ballot as separate warrant articles, all of which go through the normal review process with the Budget Committee.