By Geena Monahan—For the North Star Reporter
Healthcare costs and insurance were the heavy hitters of the night at the April 14 Town Council meeting, where Town Manager Borg laid out North Attleborough’s fiscal year 2026 budget.
A vote was taken towards the start of the meeting to withdraw, repurpose and transfer $1.8 million from Capital Improvement Stabilization to fund the health insurance account. Council Vice President John Simmons noted that the council has been aware of the need for additional health insurance funding since around September 2024, and that the Finance Subcommittee already voted in favor of this measure at its April 8 meeting.
“We are outpacing our premiums, and we will have to make payments above and beyond what we had budgeted for health insurance,” said Simmons. “Knowing this, we had preemptively moved some of the free cash into Capital Improvement Stabilization for this purpose, so it could raise interest while it was there, before we could pay.”
Councilor Mark Gould questioned Borg about the rising costs, asking if he thought this was a one time “blip” or something the town will continue to see going into the future.
“I do think that this will go on for one more year, to the level I can’t tell you, I can’t be specific,” said Borg. “We just got claims for the month of March and we were again at 106.8% of premiums. We’re burning through it faster than we had set aside.”
A two-thirds vote was needed in order to repurpose the funds, which was easily reached as all councilors voted unanimously to pass the measure and move the $1.8 million to the health insurance fund.
The budget will be reviewed at upcoming Finance Subcommittee meetings and come back to the council in June for a final approval.
Borg outlines budget
Borg took the floor for the remainder of the meeting, where he rolled out an in-depth look at the final Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
The overall budget for FY26 came in at $113 million, 3.7% higher than last year’s budget of $109 million. The tax levy, driven primarily by Proposition 2 ½, is the largest contributor to the town’s revenue sources, followed by state aid and local receipts.
Borg noted that the upcoming debt exclusion vote for the new high school will have no impact on the budget and will stand on its own. The seven collective bargaining agreements the town is currently negotiating was brought up by Borg as an unknown for the budget in future years.
Total free cash, in combination with the General Fund Stabilization and Capital Improvement Stabilization balances, came in at $17.3 million, something Borg said was a “very healthy position” for the town and provides a “very favorable picture for the bond rating agencies.”
“However, let me caveat, you just voted tonight to take $1.8 million out of the Capital Improvement Stabilization, you went through that and repurposed it,” said Borg. “If we are not able to hold that, then I will be coming and asking for additional funding.”
At the top of Borg’s “budget drivers” slide in his presentation was health insurance costs, as North Attleborough is approaching 111% of premiums that will lead to a 17.5% projected cost increase.
New growth remain the town’s top revenue opportunities, and Borg’s goal of bringing the town to a AAA bond rating is something that could save millions on borrowing costs for future budgets. Snow and ice operations for 2025 came in around $320,000 under budget, and Borg noted that unused funds will be put towards free cash projects in the future.
“We need health insurance to calm down,” said Borg. “We’re looking for it to settle in at where it’s going to be, so we can budget appropriately for it. Right now we’re playing catch to the increases that are happening.”
Education came in at the top of the expense forecast at $59.8 million, up 8% from last year. The number of students enrolled at Tri-County Regional Vocational High School from North Attleborough is currently at 258, with North Attleborough footing the bill of approximately $22,500 per student. According to Borg, North Attleborough has the highest registration of all 11 municipalities that support Tri-County. While in years past Tri-County cost the town approximately $3.6 million, FY26 brings a 51.5% increase, upping that number to $5.7 million.
Borg also noted that the School Department has the largest number of employees of any single department, which is something to take in consideration when looking at how large their line item in the budget is. The School Department budget line does not cover unemployment, medicare or health insurance, but instead is paid for out of the non-departmental section of the town’s budget. When those numbers are factored in, the school and its employees account for around 73% of the budget.
“Total non-departmental budget comes to about $30,188,000, which represents an overall increase of 5.2%,” said Borg. “No matter where I reduced or tried to find savings, health care coverage is driving this number up. That’s the bottom line driver here.”
Borg noted that there are no new positions in the FY26 budget, but did ask the council for its support on moving a part-time, benefited employee in the Human Resources department to a full-time position.
New growth for FY26 looks to come in at $550,000 for 2026, with an estimation of about 2.5% growth per year. Pare voiced his concerns over this projection and said he thought it was “incredibly pessimistic.”
“We have to do better than this,” said Pare. “This is not going to cut it for us to be able to continue to deliver services to the town. Those estimates are scary.”
Borg noted that new growth regularly comes in at about 2.8%, but has been flatlining because of the economy. The new growth forecast for last year was $500,000, and the town came in short at $427,000.
Towards the end of his presentation, Borg laid out some of the capital improvement projects the town has for FY26. At the top of the list was a MUNIS upgrade to put accounting, HR and payroll all together under one unified system, which is budgeted at $300,000.
Replacing the fire alarms at Amvet Elementary School, a new ceiling at Community Elementary School and overall safety and security updates to the schools were also listed. Roads, bridges, sidewalks and parking lot maintenance were given a $1 million budget.
Borg wrapped up the budget presentation on a positive note, stating that the town remains on solid financial footing, with stable reserves and consistent revenue growth. Borg gave credit to the town’s current AA+ bond rating and the foresight of the administration and Town Council for prioritizing CIP stabilization and funding it to the level it is at.
“At the end of the day, I think the town lands in a very good financial position,” said Borg. “There are some challenges coming with this year, but we are in the best position to be able to handle those.”