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Budget Adjustment Favors Nauset Towns
Due to overbudgeting related to the ongoing Nauset Regional High School project, approximately $200,000 was credited back to the four Nauset towns of Orleans, Brewster, Eastham and Wellfleet for the new fiscal year. FILE PHOTO
ORLEANS – The select board last week settled on a final budget for the upcoming 2026 fiscal year after adjustments were made to the Nauset Regional School District budget.
The board unanimously voted April 9 in support of a “bottom line” budget of $64,069,782 for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. Town Manager Kim Newman said the figure includes the town’s $53,618,885 operating budget, as well as the town’s cost to fund Orleans Elementary School and its share of the Nauset regional budget, as well as anticipated overrides that will also go before voters at May’s annual town meeting and town election.
Town Manager Kim Newman said the revised figure comes after the Nauset regional school committee revised its budget. She said costs related to the Nauset Regional High School construction and renovation came in just under $200,000 less than the district had budgeted for.
Newman said the regional committee initially intended to roll the savings into the district’s reserve for “excess and deficiency,” the district’s version of free cash.
“They received some direction from the [Massachusetts Department of Revenue] that previous money that was related to their borrowing had to be used as a credit back to the towns and our assessments,” she said..
The town’s share of that credit amounted to $43,813, which Newman said was used to help reduce an anticipated Proposition 2½ override for the fiscal 2026 operating budget from $1.8 million down to $989,627, as of April 14. The bulk of the shortfall, $691,754, is due to “increased retirement and benefits obligations,” Newman said, while the remainder will go to pay public safety salaries.
“My great thanks to obviously our employees who helped really narrow that gap this year in terms of impact to the town,” she said.
Brewster Town Administrator Peter Lombardi told his select board April 7 that Brewster’s credit from the Nauset district for the coming fiscal year is approximately $90,000.
Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com
The board unanimously voted April 9 in support of a “bottom line” budget of $64,069,782 for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. Town Manager Kim Newman said the figure includes the town’s $53,618,885 operating budget, as well as the town’s cost to fund Orleans Elementary School and its share of the Nauset regional budget, as well as anticipated overrides that will also go before voters at May’s annual town meeting and town election.
Town Manager Kim Newman said the revised figure comes after the Nauset regional school committee revised its budget. She said costs related to the Nauset Regional High School construction and renovation came in just under $200,000 less than the district had budgeted for.
Newman said the regional committee initially intended to roll the savings into the district’s reserve for “excess and deficiency,” the district’s version of free cash.
“They received some direction from the [Massachusetts Department of Revenue] that previous money that was related to their borrowing had to be used as a credit back to the towns and our assessments,” she said..
The town’s share of that credit amounted to $43,813, which Newman said was used to help reduce an anticipated Proposition 2½ override for the fiscal 2026 operating budget from $1.8 million down to $989,627, as of April 14. The bulk of the shortfall, $691,754, is due to “increased retirement and benefits obligations,” Newman said, while the remainder will go to pay public safety salaries.
“My great thanks to obviously our employees who helped really narrow that gap this year in terms of impact to the town,” she said.
Brewster Town Administrator Peter Lombardi told his select board April 7 that Brewster’s credit from the Nauset district for the coming fiscal year is approximately $90,000.
Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com
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