Carver Finance Committee reviews FY27 budgets; no votes taken pending warrant timeline

CARVER -- December 17, 2025, Carver Finance Committee reviews six FY27 departmental budgets with no votes taken. The committee spent the December 17 session receiving informational presentations ahead of formal votes to be scheduled once the town warrant is set, with Town Administrator Glenn Cannon flagging the North Carver Water District as the most unsettled budget item, the district submitted a request of $1,303,336 for FY27, roughly double its $650,000 FY26 budget, but Cannon said the town has cut it back to $650,000 pending state legislation that came one House vote short of dissolving the district in November. Finance Director Karen noted the district currently runs a deficit even at $650,000, drawing on user fees of approximately $100,000 to $127,000, federal funds, a $200,000 general fund tax subsidy, and a stabilization fund draw of $67,000. Emergency Management Director Tom Walsh told the committee that three part-time retirees now run the department for roughly $80,000 per year, a structure made possible by the 2019 closure of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, which eliminated the federal planning requirements that had justified a full-time director since the mid-1980s. The benefits budget carries a 25 percent health insurance cost increase based on actual spending and a 7 percent Plymouth County Retirement assessment increase for FY27.