Sunderland Boards Order Deep Budget Cuts, Weigh Proposition 2½ Override Amid $1.5 Million Gap

Select Board · Meeting of March 9, 2026

WHATELY — Sunderland boards direct departments to model 5 and 20 percent cuts as $1.5 million budget gap looms. Meeting jointly on March 9, the Select Board and Finance Committee confronted a projected fiscal year 2027 shortfall of roughly $1.5 million — driven largely by school and South County Senior Center costs that together account for about 75 percent of the total increase — and instructed Town Administrator Becky to ask all town departments for two revised budgets from their fiscal year 2026 baselines, one cut 5 percent and one cut 20 percent, due by March 16. Members discussed a Proposition 2½ override in the range of 7.5 to 8 percent as potentially passable, though board members acknowledged even a successful override would still require departmental reductions.

The board voted 3-0 to sign a letter of support for a state Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant application — carrying zero local match for rural Sunderland — to fund a floodplain study for the area bounded by Old Amherst Road, Silver Lane, and Route 47. The Insurance Advisory Committee separately presented a recommendation to raise the town's share of employee health insurance premiums 3 percent annually for three years, plus a new $250-per-employee flexible spending account, at an estimated maximum cost of $20,000 per year. A follow-up joint meeting is set for March 24, with override ballot language due March 27.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of March 9, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.