COHASSET — Oct. 20, 2026 — The Cohasset Select Board last Tuesday approved its FY28 budget message, a “one town, one budget” framework that asks departments for a level-service budget plus a second budget for operating needs now carried in capital, such as police vehicles. A draft calendar presented with it sets three joint budget forums, starting Nov. 10, and keeps annual town meeting in May.
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The board voted on the message the same night it reviewed the latest draft rather than waiting for its next meeting. Town Manager Michelle Leary noted that the board’s new agendas state that any discussed item can be voted on, and the board took it up that night. The motion described the document as the FY28 budget message as edited and written by Vice Chair Ellen Maher. It passed on a voice vote with no opposition voiced.
The draft merged an earlier version of the message with comments from other members. Maher, walking the board through it, said the message lists core commitments, including maintaining the town’s AAA bond rating and increasing capital funding for schools, roads and sidewalks by 2.5% each year. She also said the capital plan should become a living document kept front and center.
The central change is in what departments will be asked to submit. As explained at the meeting, each department will provide a level-service budget that includes increased costs for services and contracts and that may not fit within the levy. A second budget would include additional operating items now funded through capital. Police vehicles were the example given: Maher said the department cannot run without them and that they belong in its operating budget. She said the same argument could apply to school buses, and cited last year’s school device replacement, which went into the capital budget because the schools’ operating budget could not support it.
Not everything moves. Maher said a fire apparatus slated for three years from now would not be placed in the fire department budget at a million and a half dollars, and that the board will weigh whether borrowing for such items is better carried by capital or by operating budgets. Those decisions were left to the joint “one town, one budget” summit.
Members also discussed adding a notes section to capital request forms so requesters record why a request landed where it did, and listing projected lifespans for purchases. A speaker said the town already has asset-tagging data with life expectancies, and later said the capital budget policy’s $10,000 threshold should be raised.
Will Ashton saw a payoff for the capital side.
And I think if you get some of those smaller annual things out of it, you can use your capital stabilization fund for bigger projects to pay debt out of, instead of doing debt exclusions for other projects.
— Will Ashton, Select Board 57:42
The message also calls for funding strategies and a timeline for King Street, a budget calendar, and a comprehensive budget document with a dedicated webpage for residents to follow the process. Leary said after the vote that the webpage would be created.
The draft calendar, built by layering the schools’ tentative budget calendar over the board’s, sets joint forums on Nov. 10, Jan. 12 and March 9. The Town Manager said nothing in the schools’ calendar required an earlier annual town meeting, so it stays in May.
