Frequently Asked Questions
All About Overrides
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Proposition 2 ½ is a state law passed in 1980 that governs how local property taxes are raised. Under the law, towns may raise their total property taxes by up to 2.5 percent per year (plus a marginal percentage for new growth). Any increase beyond this figure must be approved directly by a majority of town voters. Because the cost of providing the same services often increases faster than 2.5 percent (plus new growth) annually – especially when inflation is high – towns in Massachusetts regularly hold override votes to increase revenues to match expenses.
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An operating override is a townwide vote that allows the town to increase the annual tax levy by more than 2.5 percent. When the Town of Easton asks voters to consider an operating override, the local ballot measure must specify exactly how much additional revenue is being sought.
For the FY26 operating override, the current request (as of April 11th, 2025) is a $7.3 million override.
If the override is passed, the additional amount approved is added to the the tax levy to create a new baseline. In subsequent years, rate increases are once again limited to 2.5 percent.
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Operational Overrides are a permanent increase to the tax levy. This is different from a Debt Exclusion, where a fixed cost for a specific project or capital expenditure is paid for with taxes over a certain period of time. With a Debt Exclusion, the year after it is paid off, the property tax burden associated with the Debt Exclusion goes away, typically resulting in some tax relief following their completion; however, the year after the Operational Override, the tax levy limit goes back to 2.5, which means that the next year, the town’s overall tax levy limit goes back to normal but the property tax burden does not go back down.
Why Now in Easton?
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Like most towns, Easton's largest source of revenue is property taxes, which is capped at 2.5% annual increase (plus new growth). Its second largest income source (state education & general government funding) grows about 1% annually.
Insurance, pensions, utilities, transportation and other non-discretionary costs have grown 10% or more per year for the last 2 years.
That math doesn't work, and the budget can only be balanced through cuts to expenses or increasing revenue (override). This is happening throughout Massachusetts.
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Easton is a “minimum aid” district because the state’s funding formula (Chapter 70) is based largely on a town’s perceived ability to pay. Since Easton has relatively strong property values and income levels compared to other towns, the state assumes we can fund most of our school budget locally. As a result, we get very little in state education aid—just $30 per student per year.
Can we change that? It’s tough. Increasing state aid would require a shift in either:
1. The state’s funding formula, which is a massive legislative effort, or
2. Easton becoming less wealthy on paper—which no one actually wants.
That’s why local overrides and strong civic engagement are so important. We can’t count on Beacon Hill to solve this. But we can make smart, community-driven decisions to sustain our schools and services.
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2006! This is an incredibly long time since the last override for our town.
For context, in FY2024 and FY2025, 66 towns in Massachusetts have attempted to pass overrides (40 succeeded). By contrast, the two years prior to that (FY2022 and FY2023), only 24 towns attempted to pass overrides (20 of those passed).
This means that overrides are happening more frequently throughout Massachusetts over the last few years because the same significant cost increases are happening throughout the state.
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$7.3 million (as of April 11th, 2025).
The Promoting A Sustainable Easton (PASE) committee recommended this based on the budget deficit expected for FY2026 and the structural deficit expected to impact subsequent years.
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Both lower and higher override amounts were considered. Promoting A Sustainable Easton (PASE) was tasked with determining a budget gap that would not just solve the immediate FY2026 budget shortfall for the next year but instead would sustain services at their current levels (as of FY2025) for the next five years.
The immediate FY2026 budget deficit began at over $6.4M and has been in flux since the budgeting process began. Ultimately, in order to keep town services at the same level as they were for the FY2025 budget and not immediately have to ask for another override in the next few years, budget growth had to be accounted for.
The exact budget deficit will continue to be refined as the town makes changes and adjustments leading up to the May 19th Town Meeting, with the final budget hearing prior to the Annual Town Meeting on April 29th at Oliver Ames High School.
As of April 11th, 2025, the most recent change memo reflects the non-override budget with significant cuts to services still showing a $2.28M budget deficit and that includes substantial drawing on stabilization (i.e., rainy day / emergency) funds.
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Per the proposed Town of Easton Community Compact, if the town passes the override, the Town of Easton commits to no debt exclusions for at least 5 years and no overrides for at least 4 years.
There are some exclusions that would allow the town to have an override or exclusion if the town absolutely must have one, but this reduces the likelihood dramatically.
What’s Next
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In the Community Compact, the Town of Easton’s committees and boards have outlined several ways for the town to prevent future overrides by focusing primarily on increasing revenues to maximize New Growth revenue (which exists outside of the 2.5% increases related to Proposition 2½), controlling town and school budget growth, and aggressively seeking cost-saving measures.
Members of the community have also committed (ourselves included) to seeking ways to pursue community-driven improvements to help drive the need for budget increases down through things such as community foundations and non-profit funding for various activities throughout the town and schools.
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We understand that many seniors are on fixed incomes and the increase from an override may put a stress on already stressed finances. As such, we are working with the town to identify all of the possible programs and ways for taxation aid for seniors to occur and will be putting together a full guide on financial aid post-override. In the meantime, the Town of Easton has a pretty extensive overview of all of the different financial aid services in their Financial Assistance section.
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There are two votes relating to the FY26 override scheduled. The first is Annual Town Meeting, which is May 19th. The second is a special ballot election, which is June 10th. Both of these dates have been scheduled by votes of the Select Board in accordance with state law and in the case of Town Meeting, the Town Code. Regardless of whether the override contingent budget at the May 19th Town Meeting (Article 2 on the warrant) passes or fails, the override election on June 10th still occurs.
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The override fails. Assuming Town Meeting adopted Article 1 (balanced, non-override budget) on May 19th , that budget would go into effect on July 1st. Under Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue regulations, the Select Board could vote to schedule another special override election prior to September 15th of the fiscal year. If voters approved that vote, it would effectuate the override contingent budget (Article 2).
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The override allowance to increase the tax levy above the statutory cap of 2 ½ percent plus new growth has been approved, but in this scenario the increased spending was not approved by Town Meeting. Unless and until a subsequent Special Town Meeting approves the increased expenditure levels, the taxes above the statutory cap would not be raised.