You can verify your own voter registration status by checking this My Voter Registration Status page on the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts website.   If you are not registered, please visit the Norton Voter Registration info page to find out how and where to register.  The deadline to register to vote is 10 days prior to an Election.   That means, for this ballot, the deadline to register to vote will be Wednesday, July 3rd. 

You can vote in one of two ways:

• The Election will be held on Saturday, July 13th from 8am to 5pm at the Norton Middle School.

• You can request a Ballot by filling out the Absentee Ballot Application or Vote by Mail Application.  Visit the Town Clerk's Norton Voter Registration info page or contact the Town Clerk for more details.

See our Voter Information page for more details

We created a calculator to show the impact of not only the two override amounts but also the Debt Exclusion payments:

Link to Tax Calculator.

What's the impact for these operational overrides?   For a median assessed home value in Norton at $510k, the $4M budget would result in about $547/year of additional property taxes, whereas the $6.5M budget would result in about $889/year of additional property taxes.   You can check the Town of Norton Assessor's Database to lookup your home's current assessed value.    

What about the recent debt exclusion overrides from a few years ago?  For those capital projects, the town took out bonds to fund them.  We have already started paying for those, so our current taxes already partially reflect paying those off.   For a median assessed home, for FY25, there will be about $175 of additional taxes for those.    After next year, these previous debt exclusion overrides for the High School project and the more recent capital projects for Senior Center/Town Hall/Athletic Fields will begin to taper off.    The debt exclusion payments will probably be highest in FY2025, or it could be FY2026, depending on the timing of the borrowing, completion of the projects, and the amount borrowed. Then those payments will begin to taper off.

Source calculator:   Property Tax Impact Calculator (state.ma.us) & Town Accountant

No.   This is a common misconception.    The tax rate (expressed as dollars per thousand; residential rate is currently $12.95) is calculated by taking the total allowed Tax Levy (which can only increase by 2.5% without an override) and dividing it by the total assessed value of all the property in the town.   Individual property owners might not see exactly 2.5% increase year over year (could be more or less than 2.5% or even a decrease) since your assessed value as a share of the total town value may be more or less, but if the assessments all go up (no matter how much they go up), the tax rate then decreases, so the total tax collected for the entire town can only increase by 2.5%.  In fact, with home values increasing over the years, our tax rate has actually been decreasing.

A Town Meeting is a gathering of the town’s registered voters in order to act as the legislative body of the government. There are two types of town meeting: The Annual Town Meetings (both Spring and Fall) and a Special Town Meeting. Town Meeting must be held within the physical borders of the town and be open and accessible to all who wish to attend. The Select Board is responsible for setting the date. Once the meeting starts, the Moderator is in charge of all facets of the meeting.

The upcoming Spring Annual Town meeting is generally considered the “financial meeting". It is where we vote on the budget of the town. At THIS upcoming Town Meeting on May 28th, there will be 3 budgets on the budget article, the "1%" budget and two "override" budgets. We, the registered voters, will vote on the three budgets individually.

If (when) one or both of the override budgets are approved at Town Meeting, then the Select Board would need to vote to schedule a special election. It is at that special election that voters would vote (yes of course) to approve one or both of the proposition 2 1/2 override questions. Both the town meeting vote and the ballot vote are necessary in order for the override budget to take effect. If one or both of the questions pass at the special election, the larger would be the number for the FY 2025 budget.

Proposition 2½ is a MA law that limits the $ amount by which a community can increase its property taxes each year. The limit is 2.5% over the prior year's tax limit, plus an amount for "new growth" - a figure provided by the Board of Assessors, based on actual new construction. Towns can raise taxes above Proposition 2½ level by passing a:

• General Override, (what we’re trying to do this year) which permanently increases the levy limit, or a 

• Debt Exclusion, (what we did for town hall/senior center/athletic fields in 2020) which exempts a specific long-term debt issue from the limit, but ends when that debt is paid off.

What is a WARRANT?

The Select Board notifies the registered voters of the town with a Warrant or “warning”. The warrant sets the date, time, place and an agenda of issues called “Articles” that are to be voted on at Town Meetings. The warrant has to contain sufficient information for the voter to know what is being voted or the “scope.” 

What is an ARTICLE?

“Articles” are issues that are to be voted on at a Town Meeting. Warrant articles seek AUTHORIZATION to raise taxes and pay for goods and services or ADOPT by-laws or regulations for the community.  

What is a MOTION?

“Motions” are statements that present the detail of the action requested in the printed warrant article; “I move that the town appropriate the sum of. . . to purchase a . . . .and to meet this appropriation that $000.00 be raised on the tax levy.” Town meeting votes on motions for a warrant article.

What is Free Cash?

Free cash is neither free nor cash. It  is the operating budget surplus from the prior year, which can to be spent in the current year. This is a dollar value, usually certified by the State in late summer that represents unspent and unencumbered income and receivables from the previous year. Because Free Cash varies greatly from year to year it is not considered a stable recurring funding source.

What is the Stabilization Fund?

The stabilization fund is a rainy day fund set aside to meet future expenses in the town (example: a fire engine). It must be appropriated at a town meeting by a majority vote and can only be spent from by a 2/3 vote.

Please see this excerpt from a recent post by Town Moderator Jack Conway about Reconsideration of Articles.

Your friendly neighborhood moderator here to touch on a hot topic regarding the 5/28 Annual Town Meeting:

reconsideration of articles, and how that will work if the meeting stretches across multiple nights.

One of the mechanics of Town Meeting is the ability to "reconsider" articles that have been voted on. This is done by someone making a motion to reconsider a specific article, which is immediately followed by a vote of those in attendance - there is no debate about whether to reconsider or not.

If a majority of those present vote in favor of reconsidering, the previous result (for or against) gets vacated and a new round of debate begins, leading to a new vote; in this situation, it's possible that the initial result will get reversed.

However if a majority of those present vote against reconsideration, the article is locked in - it can not be brought up for reconsideration again. This tactic is often done proactively to allow folks to feel comfortable leaving early without worrying something they care about would be overturned.

Here in Norton, there has been a long-standing precedent that articles can't be reconsidered until 3 others have been dealt with. I will be using that same approach this year, with one adjustment:

Should this meeting stretch into two nights, nothing voted on during Night 1 will be eligible for reconsideration on Night 2, regardless of whether 3 additional articles have been addressed prior to recessing for the evening. I firmly believe keeping each night’s proceedings self-contained is the logical choice to drive a higher level of engagement among those who want to participate in our community’s legislative process.

Source: Facebook Post

Yes, Champions Before & After School program will be offering childcare for Norton Residents for the upcoming Town Meeting on Tuesday, May 28th beginning at 5:45pm. Children must be between the ages of 5-13 and be toilet trained. 

If you are planning to utilize this opportunity, please complete this form below so that Champions has an idea of how many children to prepare for.   

Town Meeting Childcare Sign Up