South Shore News…letter: One Emergency Away

Plymouth Uses Excess Levy, Freezes Hiring as Health Insurance Spike Triggers $1.1M Deficit

Week of January 5, 2026

Plymouth Drains Reserves, Freezes Hiring as Health Insurance Spike Triggers $1.1M Deficit

The new year brought South Shore communities face-to-face with a fiscal reality that’s becoming impossible to ignore: even recent override approvals aren’t solving the structural budget problems. Plymouth triggered an immediate hiring freeze and allocated excess levy to concerning levels after health insurance costs spiked 14%, leaving just $300,000 in levy capacity—what Select Board Chair David Golden called being “one unforeseen expense away from an override.” Meanwhile, state mandates are forcing towns into uncomfortable choices, from Duxbury’s battery storage zoning requirements to the ADU boom that’s put Plymouth at the forefront of a statewide housing experiment. The week’s coverage reveals a region caught between rising costs, state requirements, and shrinking local control.

Fiscal Pressures Intensify Across Multiple Communities

Plymouth faces a $1.1 million budget hole driven entirely by a 14% health insurance premium increase—a shock that materialized just two weeks after Town Manager Derek Brindisi’s initial FY27 budget presentation (Plymouth health insurance story). To avoid cutting existing staff, the town imposed an immediate hiring freeze on all administrative positions effective January 1st, slashed the roads budget from $2.6 million to $2.2 million, and authorized using an additional $700,000 from excess levy capacity. Vice Chair Richard Quintal questioned whether the $1.9 million in new tax levy will sustain the town through the next few years, while resident Al DiNardo urged the board to pressure state delegation for relief from unfunded mandates.

Plymouth Public Schools is confronting similar vendor-driven cost shocks, with busing contractor First Student proposing a 7.25% first-year increase followed by a nearly 17% jump in year two (bus bid story). School Business Administrator Dr. Adam Blaisdell told the committee that transitioning to a self-operated transportation model could save $2.8 to $2.9 million over five years, though it would transfer maintenance, hiring, and insurance responsibilities from vendor to taxpayers. The committee approved a $133.1 million operating budget with a 5-0-1 vote, with member Ashley Shaw abstaining. Committee member Paul Samargedlis pushed back on vendor pricing: “It’s almost absurd what communities are going through… We’re not just going to take that lying down.”

Hanover is taking a more strategic approach to post-override fiscal management, spreading $1.8 million in excess levy capacity across fiscal years 2027-2029 to cap annual tax increases at approximately 4.5%—or $457 for the average single-family home—rather than the maximum 6.4% allowable increase (Hanover budget story). Budget Director Jim Hoyes explained the strategy provides “a nice runway to level tax increases,” with projections showing increases dropping below 1% by FY2030 when excluded debt obligations roll off. The plan maintains strict growth caps of 2.25% for municipal departments and 2.75% for schools while adding targeted positions including water treatment staff for PFAS testing and converting the Assistant Town Clerk to full-time.

State Mandates Override Local Preferences on Energy and Housing

Duxbury is wrestling with the consequences of the Tracer Lane II Realty v. Waltham Supreme Judicial Court decision, which ruled towns cannot effectively ban battery energy storage systems (Duxbury battery storage story). To comply with the legal requirement that roughly 10-20% of town land be available for such facilities, Planning Director Matthew Heins proposed allowing Battery Energy Storage Systems by special permit in Planned Development Districts 1, 2, and 3—opening approximately 10% of the town despite Duxbury being “95% or 97% residential.” Without this bylaw, Town Counsel Amy Kwesell warned, developers could propose battery farms in residential neighborhoods with limited grounds for denial under state law.

The most contentious debate centered on noise limits. Board member Tag Carpenter argued the proposed 50 decibel limit at property lines was “ear-splitting” for a town where nighttime ambient noise often approaches zero, pushing for a 40 dBA standard instead. Kwesell noted that while 40 dBA is defensible if unchallenged, developers often sue over “unreasonable” restrictions, though other towns have successfully codified that limit. Fire safety protocols also drew scrutiny, with the Board agreeing to mandate incident management plans and reference NFPA 1—the most current fire code—rather than just the older NFPA 855 standard for addressing “thermal runaway” chemical fires.

The same legal landscape is reshaping Duxbury’s broader zoning code. Kwesell warned the Select Board that presenting their multi-year zoning recodification as a complete “delete and replace” would trigger comprehensive Attorney General review (Duxbury zoning overhaul story). The concern: older bylaws—specifically sign regulations and inclusionary zoning fees—likely violate current Supreme Judicial Court rulings. “If the Attorney General is going to look at this in a comprehensive way… Your sign bylaw will be disapproved,” Kwesell explained. If the town deletes and replaces the code, the AG must review everything, potentially striking down enforcing laws immediately.

The Affordable Homes Act’s ADU provisions are creating an even more dramatic shift. Plymouth appears to be leading the Commonwealth in ADU applications, with 61 zoning permits and 44 building permits processed since August 2024—more than any other community in the Old Colony Planning Council region and potentially statewide (ADU story). State ADU Coordinator Claire Morehouse confirmed that under the new “Protected Use” status, municipalities can no longer impose owner-occupancy restrictions on ADUs up to 900 square feet in single-family districts, though towns retain authority over short-term rentals. The state has committed $10 million in incentives across FY26 and FY27 to help offset construction costs that typically range from $280,000 to $390,000 according to local design-build firm BuildX.

Asset Management and Infrastructure Decisions

Whitman took aggressive steps on long-stagnant properties, voting unanimously to retain the vacant Park Avenue School for eventual community center development while initiating foreclosure on the contaminated Regal Property (Whitman asset management story). Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter explained that taking ownership of the Regal Property—which owes nearly $800,000 in back taxes—makes the town eligible for state and federal Brownfields grants to remediate the 2.5-acre site for potential MBTA Communities or 40R development. “It’s been sitting in tax title in the same condition since I came to the town 24 years ago,” Carter said. The Board also finalized an Intermunicipal Agreement authorizing Whitman to borrow for the Middle School project on behalf of the regional district, whose suspended credit rating would have resulted in significantly higher interest rates for taxpayers.

Infrastructure delays continue to frustrate residents. Duxbury’s East Street Bridge over Route 3, originally scheduled to reopen in late December 2025, will now remain closed to all traffic until April 2026 due to design changes, crew reallocations, and winter weather preventing asphalt plant operations (Duxbury infrastructure story). On a brighter note, Scituate’s Cushing/Hatherly Elementary School project is progressing ahead of schedule, with Interim Superintendent Dr. Thomas Raab reporting the foundation work nearing completion and steel erection beginning in two weeks. “Everything’s moving on time, under budget, and probably faster,” Raab told the School Committee, with a topping-off ceremony targeted for early March (Scituate school project story).

Plymouth unveiled a new “Street Acceptance Policy” that would allow the town to accept some of its 133 miles of private roads if 80% of abutters petition and residents pay 100% of upgrade costs through betterment taxes assessed over 10 or 20 years (Plymouth private roads story). DPW Director William Coyle emphasized the town wouldn’t require full subdivision standards—“we just want to make the road passable and in good condition.” Once accepted, the town would take over maintenance and plowing, with roads becoming eligible for state Chapter 90 funding.

School Operations and Educational Programming

Kingston aligned its 2026-2027 school calendar with state election dates, designating September 1 and November 3 as in-service days to address safety and overcrowding at Kingston Elementary School during voting (Kingston calendar story). Superintendent Dr. Jill Proulx explained that KES serves as a polling location, necessitating the scheduling adjustment. The calendar sets September 2 as the first day for students and June 17, 2027 as the projected last day, with five snow days potentially extending to June 25. Kingston also reported that its emergency CodeRED notification system has suffered a data breach, leaving the town temporarily without mass alert capabilities while the Sheriff’s Department works on a vendor replacement.

Scituate High School expanded its dual-enrollment partnership with Quincy College, adding honors-level courses in Anatomy and Physiology, Physics, Chemistry, “Shark Tank” Marketing, Advanced Journalism, Pre-Calculus, and Investing & Personal Finance (Scituate dual enrollment story). Students can earn transferable college credits for $200 to $350—what Interim Superintendent Dr. Raab called “a phenomenal value” and “absolute differentiator on a college application” compared to standard tuition rates. The Committee also approved creation of a Capital Reserve Fund for the South Shore Educational Collaborative, allowing the organization to save surplus tuition revenue (capped at $4 million) for future facility acquisitions.

Looking Ahead

Whitman’s Special Town Meeting is scheduled for January 12 at 6:30 PM with nine warrant articles. Hanover will receive the Town Manager’s formal budget submission on February 3, followed by the School Administration’s detailed budget presentation on February 20. Kingston holds its public budget hearing on February 2. Plymouth officials continue negotiating with First Student on transportation costs while simultaneously developing the self-operation model. Duxbury’s Planning Board will hold public hearings on the battery storage and zoning recodification articles before Annual Town Meeting, with draft articles due to the Town Manager by December 31, 2025.