The Select Board on Tuesday learned that the health insurance cost increase for town employees will be twice what had been previously projected, leading to a revised proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Kyla LaPierre, the town’s chief financial officer, appeared before the board. She explained that the town originally had anticipated a 9% increase in health insurance costs over FY 26. But two weeks ago, she learned that the quotes amounted to a 24% increase.

“We were able to negotiate those down to 18%,” she said. “So that left us with a $1.3 million gap in our budget.”

Town, schools ‘scrambled’ to close gap

LaPierre said the town and the School Department “scrambled” to cut expenses from their proposed operating budgets “in a few days.” The School Department trimmed about $629,000, while the town slashed almost $300,000.

To offset the gap, she recommended that the town use $289,000 in free cash.

On the town side, LaPierre said there were reductions to the police, fire, human resources and Department of Public Works budgets as well as to appropriation reserves.

Also, town funding for holiday lights was cut for the second straight year. This was a contentious issue that last year led to private donations to pay for the lights.

“This is not something we could have foreseen,” stressed chair Joe Clark. He noted that insurance cost estimates usually are received at this time of year.

While he called using $289,000 in free cash “not the best scenario,” he said it was “clearly a workable one.”

Town Manager Elaine Lazarus said that as the costs have gone up, the health insurance company has offered more wellness benefits, such as gym memberships.

“But it’s not enough,” she added.

Select Board member Matt Kizner said he was “really uncomfortable” with using free cash. He has been advocating for the town to prevent using free cash as an “operational expense offset.”

“I know you’re doing this out of desperation,” he added to LaPierre.

Later in the discussion, he stressed that residents are going to have to expect to “get less” in the future.

Added Kizner: “This community has been getting everything it wanted for so long that it has forgotten what the cost is that is associated with that, gang.”

Brian Herr, a veteran Select Board member, said this information “was not necessarily a surprise,” given the timing of receiving the final number.

Clark said board members and Town Meeting need to work together to “reel in” unnecessary expenses. But he also acknowledged the work LaPierre and others have done “in the background” to close the gap in a short amount of time.

The board approved the revised comprehensive FY 27 budget in a 3-1 vote. Kizner voted against it.

Board approves ATM warrant, recommends articles

The board approved the warrant for the May 2 Annual Town Meeting in a 4-0 vote. Vice chair Shahidul Mannan was absent.

Clark said the warrant should be approved “in the interest of time,” especially considering the revised FY 27 budget information. Then discussion could proceed on the board’s recommendation on whether to approve articles.

The board then discussed several articles and took 4-0 votes affirming its recommendation for approval. The exception was the transfer of funds to the capital expense stabilization fund. Because it involved no money transfer, the board recommended no action.

The board voted to recommend approval of the articles relating to the FY 27 budget. The Community Preservation Committee’s two articles requesting the use of its funding for various town projects it approved last fall were recommended for approval.

In addition, the board voted to recommend approval of several articles regarding land acquisition and disposition by the town. They included:

• Authorizing the lease of 148 Lumber Street
• The disposition of land off Woody Island Road
• Accepting an easement at 64 Grove Street

Article 13, which outlined 32 capital improvement projects, was approved 4-0. The board previously reviewed the town department requests over the course of several meetings. Clark noted that the departments just had to make cuts to their respective operational budgets to make the FY 27 budget gap described earlier easier to overcome.

Select Board member Amy Ritterbusch noted that all of these projects would be funded by free cash, except for the ambulance fund.

The articles related to one-time expenses, water enterprise capital improvements and sewer enterprise capital improvements received 4-0 approvals

Said Clark: “I think we’ve gone through them, we’ve discussed them, and I think it’s critical for them to go to Town Meeting and be discussed at that point.”

Auciello Drive provokes deeper discussion

The proposed approval of Auciello Drive as a town road (Article 38) generated discussion. Assistant Town Manager Lance DelPriore noted that some of the language had been modified since the last meeting.

There now are several components to this article, he said. The board previously voted 4-0 to recommend approval of Auciello Drive so that it could advance to a Town Meeting vote. Concerns were raised by town officials at the last meeting. Department of Public Works director Kerry Reed said the road would need to be “brought up to town standards” before being accepted. The Planning Board and the Capital Improvement Committee voted not to recommend acceptance of Auciello Drive, DelPriore noted.

Two parts would require town funding, DelPriore said. Signs for private ways and “essentially a program to help accept future private ways towards public acceptance” would be town expenses, if approved.

He added that proponent Parker Happ modified the original article regarding a bylaw change. Happ accepted the board’s recommendation to change the $1,000 limit to repairs to private ways to $10,000. Happ originally proposed no spending limit. This did not need board approval because it is a bylaw change.

The board voted 4-0-1 against recommending the road’s conveyance to the town, the funding of signs for private ways and appropriating funds for private way candidates seeking acceptance as public roads. Ritterbusch abstained.

“I’m not OK with recommending these,” Clark said. “I think the rest of our boards and committees took the right approach.”

Chamber opposes CV fingerprinting

Clark noted that the Hopkinton Chamber of Commerce was against the fingerprinting of applicants for common victualer licenses.

On the other hand, he said the idea sprung from community input seeking safety precautions. Members agreed that the discussion needed to move to Town Meeting.

Kizner added that the chamber saw this potential policy as “burdensome” and “potentially being a disincentive to business.” But Town Meeting members needed to have their voices heard, he said.

The board voted 3-1 in favor a motion to take no action after discussion. Ritterbusch voted against taking no action, saying that the contentious issue needed to be debated in an open forum.