Brookline Select Board sets $19 million as working lower override tier for May ballot

HAMILTON — March 17, 2026 — Brookline Select Board begins override deliberations, eyes two-tier ballot question of $23 million and $19 million. At a March 17 workshop, Chair Bernard Green and the four-member Select Board took up the final 639-page report of the Expenditure and Revenue Study Committee, which identified a three-year structural deficit of just under $26 million — roughly $8 million on the town side and $18 million from the public schools. The board did not vote on an amount but agreed on a working framework: directing ERSC presenter Sadaf Kazmi and school officials to model what a proportional $19 million override — about 86 percent of the full $23.25 million combined ask — would require in service cuts, to be presented at the March 24 follow-up session. A failed full override would eliminate 58 school FTEs on top of 22 already cut from the baseline budget, including middle school world languages and the South Brookline bus service. The board debated whether to front-load the override to reduce the headline number — a mechanism that would lower the ask to $18.6 million but spike year-one taxes for a median single-family homeowner to $2,231 above baseline versus $619 under a traditional ramp — ultimately directing town counsel to advise on what ballot question structures state law permits before the March 31 filing deadline.