Great Barrington — Toward the end of a three-hour joint Selectboard-Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday, March 3, committee member Michelle Loubert expressed frustration with what she described as a “particularly bad year” for the town’s finances.
“This is a bad year,” Loubert said. “Every year is not a good year, but this is a particularly bad year. We’re not Pittsfield, and I worked with a lot of Pittsfield people who aren’t happy with their taxes up there. Every year I listen to budget meetings. I hear [during municipal department presentations] that ‘this will save us money and time,’ but we’re still getting further in the hole. When it comes time to go into discussions of everything, you’re going to hear some ‘noes.’”
For fiscal year 2027 (FY27), Town Manager Liz Hartsgrove is proposing a municipal budget of $17,348,228, an increase of $655,484 from this year’s municipal budget. Back in May, voters approved a FY26 municipal budget of $16,692,744.
In her budget, Hartsgrove writes that she would eliminate the use of the town’s free cash line item for recurring municipal operations. She is also recommending a Proposition 2½ override in order for the budget to be passed.
Proposition 2½ is a state statute that limits tax levy increases.
The March 3 meeting was the third in a series in which the board and committee reviewed municipal department presentations for their budgets and capital requests, including from the Police Department, Fire Department, and the Assessors Department, with the latter bringing information technology requests before the joint boards.
“Even though the presentations [from the departments] have been outstanding, I’m having taxpayers coming to me and calling me,” Loubert continued. “I met with three people this weekend who said they are not going to be able to afford their taxes, and there are people who do not qualify for exemptions. The town manager has done an exemplary job [with her presentation], along with the staff with their supporting documentation. But a lot of comments I have heard is that, year after year, things are getting worse financially.”
“I agree,” Town Manager Hartsgrove told Loubert. “I know that. I gave you a menu [of budget options] to choose from. I gave you my recommendations, and you know what is best for the community. That being said, when you are evaluating these [options] and weighing out the pluses and minuses and where you should be investing for the future, I will put it out there that I strongly recommend prioritizing investing in technology. I will stand by that firmly. The future, the convenience, the customer service, internally as well as externally, needs to be prioritized. If you cut anything, please do not cut technology.”
Interim Police Chief Adam Carlotto was among several department heads who requested funding for technology and equipment during their presentations. At the meeting, he presented an $85,000 capital request from the free cash line item to purchase a pickup truck for the department, saying the purchase would take the place of a scheduled cruiser replacement. “Animal control has fallen under our umbrella more than ever, and there has been an uptick in their activity,” he said. “Officers have been using their personal pickup trucks to put the kennel in the back and do animal control work, and that’s just not sustainable for us as a department.”
Carlotto said the department also would use the trucks to transport its E-bikes where they are needed.
The Police Department is also requesting $48,201 from the free cash budget line for new body cameras. Carlotto said the department’s current contract with its body camera vendor, which started in September 2022, is now ending. “We need to figure out a successor plan for our body cameras,” he said. “Originally, the body cam [purchases] were grant funded, almost all body cam programs were. But we found out that it’s only for first-time initiatives. So, we are stuck holding a bag.”
Carlotto said the department is seeking to purchase 30 Axon Body 4 cameras with technological upgrades such as translation capabilities and various artificial intelligence tools, including a redaction suite designed to automatically detect and obscure potentially sensitive information.
Town Manager Hartsgrove, noting that information technology falls under her department, presented a $90,000 request from free cash for OpenGov’s online permitting software. She said that the software would ensure legal compliance and replace the current system with accessible permitting software required under recent state law changes.
Hartsgrove also made a $43,000 request from the free cash budget line to upgrade software for town assessors. “It is not essential,” she pointed out. “But the reason why I did not shift this to another year is because I looked at this again and again.”
Board of Assessors Chair Emily Schilling said that the town Assessors Department currently uses two software programs to manage property tax assessment and appraisal data: MUNIS, which is an enterprise resource planning system for managing property tax assessment and appraisal data, and CAMA (Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal). “Every time we run a bill, I’ve saved all of the information from my CAMA system, and then I have to get it into MUNIS,” she explained. “It has not been successful. The bills do not run correctly. There are problems every single time we run the bills. I’ve worked 48 hours on a weekend trying to fix the problem.”
Schilling said the town is currently paying for a “bridge” for the two systems to communicate. She said the upgrade would allow the department to operate much more efficiently without having to pay for the “bridge.”
A public hearing on the proposed budget is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7.