KINGSTON — September 30, 2026 — Kingston’s Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and School Committee opened fiscal 2028 budget talks Wednesday facing a gap Town Administrator Scott Lambiase put at $1.2 million to $1.5 million just to keep services at current levels, driven largely by health insurance and a Plymouth County retirement assessment rising about $750,000 a year.
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Town Administrator Scott Lambiase told the joint meeting that the 2.5% levy increase, local receipts, state aid and a new billboard lease will not keep pace with operating costs that typically climb a little over 4% a year. The level-service gap will probably land between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, he said, and the administration is working from $1.2 million for now.
Two costs the town does not control account for much of it. Health insurance, a $3 million line item, rose a little over 9% last year and will probably rise again. The county retirement system’s full-funding target has slipped from 2030 to 2032, and Kingston’s assessment increases over the next couple of years are approximately $750,000 per year. Together, the administrator said, those two items put the town close to $1 million in new costs.
The forecast assumes $400,000 in new growth. The administrator called last year’s five-year plan, which counted on $1 million or more, very optimistic for a largely built-out town. State aid has run around 2%, Chapter 70 is not growing by much, and relief does not arrive until the retirement assessment drops off in fiscal 2032, when more than $5 million or $6 million would come back to the town.
Carol, the finance director put it more bluntly: without an override, the town will have to cut services and personnel, and the new growth that might avoid one is not coming.
I know that we don’t like to say that, but this is where we are. We talked about it for three years. I’m finally going to say it out loud. I think we are going to be asking for an override …
— Chair Kim Emberg 1:28:15
Carl Pike argued against a giant request in favor of one sized for the coming year with a look a couple of years out. Emberg also urged that any request be broken out by department — police, fire, schools — noting that neighboring communities passed overrides at town meeting only to see them fail at the ballot.
Departments will be asked for two submissions: a level-service budget and a separate one showing 5% to 10% reductions.
Pike pushed back on the starting point, proposing a preliminary budget capped at a 2% increase across every department, schools included. Starting at about 4.4%, he said, sets the town up for an almost automatic override, and the town has gone to its unions seeking contracts with approximately 1% raises in the first year. Lambiase countered that even a 2% cost-of-living raise would leave the budget growing well beyond 2%, because utilities, software subscriptions, steps and lanes and pension costs keep rising.
Finance Committee member Marsha Meekins said the handout showed a shortfall close to $1.6 million and asked whether officials were weighing a one-year override or a larger one to carry the town to fiscal 2031 or 2032. Pike called it way too early to put a figure on an override, warning that any number would be in the newspaper the next day.
We have been slowly bleeding for several years. And we’ve kind of kicked the can down the road. And the question eventually is, do you keep kicking?
— David Fuller, Finance Committee 44:39
Fuller pledged not to leave the issue on the town meeting floor without a recommendation.
