Shutesbury Finance Committee Advances Five-Year Budget Forecasting Tool

SHUTESBURY -- June 16, 2026, Shutesbury Finance Committee previews multiyear budget model and coordinates school facility planning. The committee, meeting June 16, approved minutes from three prior sessions and received a presentation from member George Mosher on a long-range financial forecasting spreadsheet that projects the town's operating budget, levy limit, and excess levy capacity five years forward using adjustable inflation assumptions by category. The committee provisionally set baseline increase assumptions of 2.5 percent for the regional school assessment and 3 to 3.5 percent for the elementary school appropriation, and added a 1 percent contingency line, roughly $83,000, for unanticipated costs. Chair AJ Stein reported that a $150,000 feasibility grant application for a ground-source heat pump system at the elementary school has been submitted and is expected to be awarded, with construction projected no earlier than summer 2028; the committee agreed that parking lot repaving should be held until the feasibility study is complete.