Week of October 13–20, 2026
Plymouth County Retirement’s assumption reset hit three South Shore budgets in the same week, and the people who run them are not happy. Norwell was told full funding slips from 2031 to 2032, with assessments averaging 9.75% a year until then. Hanson put its added cost at about $330,000 this year and pushed for a sterner letter to the retirement board. East Bridgewater’s business office priced the FY28 payment at $5,285,683, up almost 12.2%, an increase that “would take up most of the town’s available 2.5% revenue growth,” with an 8% to 10% health insurance hike also expected. Hanson Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett put it bluntly: “$330,000 in a year when we’re already facing a deficit... is a lot of money. It’s not a rounding error.” Last week’s edition flagged Hanover’s projected $10.7 million FY32 bill, so the pattern now spans at least four towns.
The second thread is how towns pay for what they want to build when the levy has no room left. Scituate voters overrode their Advisory Committee on a $3 million borrowing for Pier 44 Park. Cohasset is promising a $7.5 million fire station renovation “without an override.” Plymouth’s Select Board split 3-2 over whether to spend free cash on a $300,000 title study. Hingham’s CPC is staring at $3.5 million in requests against just under $2 million in funds. Meanwhile, the campaign-trail talk of reformulating Chapter 70 and unrestricted aid sits next to Town Meeting floors that are doing the real arithmetic.
The pension reset
Norwell — Norwell Told County Pension Full Funding Slips to 2032, With 9.75% Average Yearly Increases The new actuary pushed the return assumption down from 7.875% to 7.4%, the retirement board settled on 7.625%, and Peter Smellie said Norwell’s five-year plan built around 2031 would probably now involve “some level of override.”
Hanson — Hanson Select Board Members Push Sterner Letter to Plymouth County Retirement Board Over Assessment Increase Members called the draft too polite, Joe Weeks urged the retirement board to seek money from legislators rather than towns, and the chair put Hanson’s added cost at about $330,000 this year.
East Bridgewater — East Bridgewater School Committee Tables Letter to Healey Protesting MBTA-Linked Grant Ineligibility In the same meeting, Director of Business Administration John Shea said the $574,000 FY28 increase would eat most of the town’s available 2.5% revenue growth (the grant dispute is covered under Housing and 3A below).
Last week’s edition — South Shore News...letter: Pension Peak Background on Hanover’s projected $10.7 million FY32 bill and its proposed stabilization-fund prepayment.
Capital ambitions vs. levy reality
Scituate — Scituate Town Meeting Backs $3.8M Pier 44 Park, $5M for Gates Senior Housing Voters cleared the park by two-thirds on a voice vote despite a 2-4 Advisory Committee recommendation against, and also approved $5 million in CPA money for the 63-unit Gates Apartments and indefinitely postponed the police training facility.
Scituate — Scituate Select Board Approves Three-Year Firefighter Contract, Hears Low-Borrowing FY28 Capital Plan The FY28–FY30 deal pairs 3% annual raises with a $6,000 family / $3,000 individual health insurance opt-out, and Town Administrator Jim Boudreau sent a $4.2 million water tank request back for better numbers because it “keeps going up and up and up.”
Cohasset — Cohasset Panel Pitches $7.5M Elm Street Fire Station Renovation, Aiming to Pay Without an Override The plan rests on a year-old estimate, a start no earlier than winter 2029, and a Select Board that is already asking whether 3% inflation compounding has been priced in.
Plymouth — Plymouth Select Board Splits 3-2 to Recommend Free Cash for Shallow Pond Title Research Chair Deb Iaquinto and Kevin Canty favored borrowing, which would need a two-thirds vote, while Golden, Keohan and Quintal carried free cash, and the vote came the same night staff presented a five-year forecast with widening gaps after FY28.
Marshfield — Brant Rock Overlay Repeal Fails at Marshfield Town Meeting as Seawall Repairs, Land Buys and Audit Pass Voters approved $9,944,140 for revetment repairs, with the town expecting 75% FEMA reimbursement, and widened a $250,000 operational audit to cover all departments, schools included.
Hanson — Hanson Select Board Members Push Sterner Letter to Plymouth County Retirement Board Over Assessment Increase A second letter asks Hanover to reconsider $1.8 million to $2 million in building permit fees on South Shore Vocational Technical, a cost spread across all member communities.
Big infrastructure, unresolved
Hull — Hull Light Plant Grant Motion Ends Without a Vote Vice Chair Jerry Taverna’s bid to keep the DPW garage and light plant on separate existing sites died without a vote, and the board approved an $8,990,000 bond sale by voice vote.
Hingham — Hingham Light Board Gets State Permit for $100M Transmission Project, Delays Town Meeting Ask to Next Year Chair Laura Burns said commissioners want firm rate-impact numbers first, and the same roundtable heard that Hingham CPC applications total just over $3.5 million against just under $2 million in estimated funds.
School budgets under pressure
Rockland — Rockland School Committee Raises Daily Substitute Pay to $125, Citing Lost Subs and Staffing Cuts Last year’s reductions eliminated the permanent building subs and thinned the paraprofessional pool that covered absences, and Superintendent Jane Hackett said the increase fits within this year’s budget, with $150 a day for retired teachers. The committee also adopted a Protect Act policy covering civil arrests on school grounds.
Marshfield — Marshfield Survey: Nearly Half of Respondents Unsure Where to Find Quick Mental Health Help Of 353 respondents, 86.6% ranked mental health the top student priority, and Lauren Dargan noted that work on a social-emotional curriculum has stalled because of budget constraints.
Housing and 3A
East Bridgewater — East Bridgewater School Committee Tables Letter to Healey Protesting MBTA-Linked Grant Ineligibility The draft lists FY27 literacy, hate crime prevention and Safe Routes grants the district says it can no longer apply for, and Assistant Superintendent Jennifer McPartland said the restriction is “now written into every state grant.”
Scituate — Scituate Town Meeting Backs $3.8M Pier 44 Park, $5M for Gates Senior Housing Advisory Committee Vice Chair Missy Seidel cited a one-year safe harbor from new 40B applications in backing the Gates money, and the $5 million is the only town money in a roughly $33 million building.
Regionwide — The November Nine: Question 7 The measure bites only where lots have public sewer and water, which leaves it barely touching Norwell, Hanover, Hanson, Halifax and Pembroke but reaching Weymouth, Braintree, Hull, Whitman and much of Rockland, where the 32,670-square-foot minimum would drop to 5,000.
Land use: batteries, data centers and overlays
Pembroke — Pembroke Town Meeting Adopts Battery Storage Bylaw After Voters Double Residential Buffer to 300 Feet Voters doubled the abutting-residential setback from 150 to 300 feet over Town Counsel Michelle Randazzo’s warning that the attorney general “may end up disapproving the bylaw in its entirety.”
Kingston — Kingston Selectmen Back Data Center Ban, $2.5M Water Meters The board recommended the data center ban 4-1, with Carl Pike opposed, and a unanimous recommendation on battery storage zoning for the Oct. 27 Special Town Meeting, plus the $2.5 million DEP-ordered meter project, also 4-1.
Marshfield — Brant Rock Overlay Repeal Fails at Marshfield Town Meeting as Seawall Repairs, Land Buys and Audit Pass The citizens’ petition fell short of two-thirds on a show of hands with no standing count, after both the Advisory Board (4-2) and Planning Board (5-0) opposed repeal.
Plymouth — Plymouth Town Meeting Votes to Require Special Permits for Unified Complexes The 101–44–1 vote came despite Planning Board Chair Steven Bolotin’s no-vote plea, and the article now heads to the attorney general for 90-day review.
Campaign season
12th Plymouth — 12th Plymouth Forum: LaNatra Points to Tax Relief, Meschino Calls for Audit and Tax Cuts Rep. Kathy LaNatra said Chapter 90 rose 50% this year and called the Chapter 70 formula unfair, while challenger Eric Meschino pitched an audit and ending property taxes for seniors with paid-off homes.
Sixth Plymouth — Sixth Plymouth Forum: Sweezey, Bradley Rushing Split on Budget Votes, Utility Charges, MBTA Communities Law Both candidates called the school funding formulas broken, and Jessica Bradley Rushing said every town in the district had an override on the spring ballot and about half passed, while Rep. Ken Sweezey defended his budget votes as a stand against underfunded Chapter 70 and unrestricted aid.
Process skirmishes
Plymouth — Plymouth Town Meeting Votes to Require Special Permits for Unified Complexes Moderator F. Steven Triffletti ruled two citizen petitions out of order, calling the airport-revenue ruling “substantive,” and no two-thirds appeal vote was taken on either.
Kingston — Kingston Selectmen Back Data Center Ban, $2.5M Water Meters The board voted unanimously to send Marsha Meekins’s open meeting law complaint over the Miramar agreement to outside counsel, and took no position on the two Miramar citizen petitions.
Halifax — Halifax Sets Jan. 12 Special Town Meeting, Keeps Warrant Open to Nov. 5 The board pushed Special Town Meeting into January to allow time to certify free cash, raised the trash fee from $440 to $450, and approved the Democratic Town Committee’s get-out-the-vote tent 3-0, conditioned on notifying local Republican officials.
Marshfield — Brant Rock Overlay Repeal Fails at Marshfield Town Meeting as Seawall Repairs, Land Buys and Audit Pass The $9.9 million seawall motion read on the floor differed from the printed warrant, and the moderator ruled withdrawal was not an amendment after Priscilla Maglio objected that the rewrite had not been handed out.