Oakham Finance Committee Unanimously Recommends Proposition 2½ Override This Fall

OAKHAM — April 28, 2026 — Oakham Finance Committee votes 3-0 to recommend Proposition 2½ override this fall. Meeting as an emergency body alongside the regular Select Board session Monday, Chair Corey Packard and members Vin Piutri and Claire Hendrask worked through a fiscal year 2027 shortfall that had ballooned from an earlier estimate of $30,000 to $239,488.28 after an accounting correction separated the debt exclusion stabilization fund into its own article. A series of line-item reductions — including the elimination of a third highway department position saving roughly $54,000, a $37,201.87 cut in health insurance, a $55,000 reduction to the legal budget, and a $7,000 IT cut — brought the confirmed shortfall to $65,831.76 against a general stabilization fund balance of approximately $399,000. Hendrask argued that a spring override is logistically impossible, recommending the town "fill it out of stabilization and continue to go for a Prop 2½ override, perhaps having a meeting about it, and a vote on it this fall." Piutri agreed, noting the town should "start planning for next year" as revenue growth of 3.7 percent continues to lag cost growth of 8.6 percent.