The Capital Planning Committee met on Wednesday night (Dec. 10th) and listened to the town management’s recommendations for capital spending in FY2027, which begins July 1, 2026. This was an overview, an initial presentation. Individual departments will appear before the committee over the next few weeks.
About the Capital Planning Committee
The Capital Planning Committee reviews capital requests from town departments, then makes a recommendation to the Select Board on which to place before voters at Annual Town Meeting each spring.
This committee typically considers requests for equipment, vehicles, software, building and maintenance projects across the town’s needs, including police, fire, DPW, water, sewer, information technology, parks and other departments.
The Select Board appoints this committee. Per the town’s financial policies, this committee includes one member of the Select Board and Finance Committee, the Town Manager, the Finance Manager and 5 or fewer citizens.
Town Finances
Before discussing the capital requests, the town management discussed the challenges communities are facing at the federal, state and local levels. The Town of Ayer anticipates a projected Omnibus budget shortfall of $1 million in FY2027, largely driven by anticipated increases in health insurance (possibly in excess of 20 percent).
Among other comments, the management also noted the town’s reserves and fiscal strengths, saying that Ayer and Littleton were the only two communities out of the 17 in the Nashoba Valley region that didn’t require some kind of override or tax adjustment last year.
According to this presentation, the Town of Ayer has $6.18 million in its Capital Stabilization Fund. This factors in the Oct. 27th Special Town Meeting, when voters approved a $2 million transfer from Capital Stabilization to help finance the senior center project. In other words, this calculation was done.
The town also has $2.9 million in Free Cash, which is up over the 10-year average of $1.7 million. This was just certified by the Department of Revenue on Nov. 19th.
FY2027 Capital Requests
This year, the department requests totaled roughly $5.53 million. The town manager and finance manager reviewed the requests and reduced the ask to about $5.26 million.
Residents can review the list of capital requests on the town website. The next meeting is Jan. 8th, when the Capital Planning Committee starts reviewing requests from the Department of Public Works.
We will write more about some of the capital requests going forward. For now, we will share that there is one potential debt exclusion. The Parks Department has requested $1.2 million for a Sandy Pond Beach House project (we don’t have more details on this project right now). The town’s financial policies state that articles with an expense of $500,000 or more shall be funded through debt-exclusion votes.
Many capital requests are for new trucks and vehicles (over the years). Near the end of the meeting, the committee members asked the town management to gather and provide an inventory of the town’s vehicles.
You can follow the town’s budget process on this web page: