Scituate sewer rates could rise 8% to 10% as the town's 2028 budget plan cuts Sunday library hours

Scituate sewer customers could see their rates go up 8% to 10%, possibly before next July, Town Administrator James Boudreau told the Select Board on Tuesday, Nov. 10, as he opened the town's budget talks for fiscal 2028.

The sewer fund is short about $436,000 for next year, Boudreau said, which would take "a rate increase of 8 to 10%." The board's usual rate review is in June, but he said staff may come back sooner, probably in December, so the board can discuss a midyear rate change to "try to smooth out that increase."

Sewer customers already saw an increase this year. In May the board raised the sewer usage rate 6.5% and the base fee 2% for fiscal 2027, which began July 1, bringing the charges to a base fee of $93.72 plus $8.38 per 100 cubic feet, up from $91.88 and $7.87, according to the town's sewer division.

The rest of his budget, for the year that starts July 1, 2027, is balanced without an override and lays no one off, Boudreau said, though it trims services and reduces head count by leaving some positions unfilled. "This is not a level service budget," he told the board.

Why sewer is short

Boudreau said the sewer fund ended fiscal 2026 with almost $800,000 in retained earnings, but it is not collecting the connection fees it counted on. This year's sewer budget counts on $232,000 from those fees, and none has come in so far, because projects in the Greenbush area and North Scituate have permits but are not being built.

"Nothing's being built, so we're not getting any permit fee, any connection fees," he said. He did not expect that to change soon unless interest rates fall.

The biggest piece, he said, is a drop in betterment payments, the charges owners pay toward sewer construction loans. Under the old state rule, when an owner paid a betterment off all at once, the town spent the money right away instead of setting it aside for the loan. As a result, about $300,000 in betterments that owners prepaid is gone, he said, while the loan it was meant to help repay is still out there.

For a single bill that spikes, the town's water and sewer abatement policy lets a customer ask the Water Department to reduce an unusually high bill caused by a leak that has since been fixed or by water quality flushing at the house, and it allows a one-time hardship abatement of up to 75% of an unusually high bill when paying it would strain a resident's finances.

Scituate's other fee-funded accounts, for water, the transfer station, waterways and the Widow's Walk golf course, need no rate increase next year, he said. The water fund will keep its rebate program for residents who replace old appliances with newer, efficient ones.

Where the budget is cut

Taxes and new growth will bring in about $2.7 million more next year, Boudreau said, while fixed costs rise about $2.2 million, leaving about $600,000 for operating budgets. Under the town's split, 66% goes to the schools and 34% to town departments.

The town's Plymouth County retirement assessment is up about $1 million after the county system's new actuary changed its assumptions, he said, and the town's Financial Forecast Committee voted to cover that jump with free cash, money left from past years. The county system's schedule for paying off its unfunded liability now runs to 2032, a year later than before because of the actuary's changes, he said. The budget plans for a 10% rise in health insurance, which he said might come in closer to 8%, and the regional school assessment is up after a large freshman class.

To balance the budget, Boudreau said, he:

• Eliminated Sunday hours at the library, which are offered only in winter and paid as overtime, and took about $50,000 for computers out of the library budget, to be sought separately.
• Cut one police cruiser and reduced police overtime. He said the department is fully staffed, which he believes is a first since he has been in the job.
• Reduced seasonal public works help, sidewalk and building repair and maintenance, and tree work, and dropped specialty landscaping around town buildings.
• Cut the Economic Development Commission's budget by about half and made the Zoning Board of Appeals clerk a part-time job.
• Again left road paving out of the operating budget. Solar and wind array money has paid for roads the past two years, he said.

About $250,000 in positions cut in earlier years stay unfunded, and requests for new police, fire and other positions were not funded.

Boudreau also proposed moving recreation programs into their own fee-funded account, which he said would move about $187,000 in full-time salaries off the town budget and onto program fees. "It's sobering news," one board member said after the presentation.

Tax bills and the new projects

Finance Director Nancy Holt told the board that the first $25 million of borrowing for the new Satuit School and the first $13 million for the new water treatment plant are on this year's tax bills. More of the plant's cost will come next year, she said, and the full cost of both should reach tax bills by fiscal 2030.

One tax rate again

The board held its annual tax classification hearing the same night and voted to keep a single tax rate for homes and businesses for fiscal 2027, as the Board of Assessors recommended Oct. 28. The assessors also recommended that the town pass up three optional tax breaks: an open space discount, a residential exemption and a small commercial exemption.

Director of Assessing Anne Marie Sinnott said a split rate would give homeowners very little relief while raising taxes sharply on other property. The town has just under 1,000 second homes, she said, but a residential exemption would take years to set up, need more staff and could raise bills for owners of higher-valued homes.

A resident urged the board to pursue a means-tested tax break for seniors. The member running the meeting said the board would look into it, and an official at the table said towns offering one have needed special legislation from the state. Another said the town had just expanded the program that lets older residents who are able to work pay down part of their taxes.

Scituate already offers the state's other breaks for older and disabled homeowners. The assessors' fiscal 2026 overview lists a $1,000 exemption under Clause 41C for owners 65 and older with income under $25,980 single or $38,970 married, a $350 exemption under Clause 17E for owners 70 and older with assets under $53,373, a deferral for owners 65 and older with income up to $72,000 that lets the tax wait, at 4% interest, until the home changes hands, and exemptions for veterans, blind residents and hardship. Owners 60 and older and lower-income owners of any age who meet income limits can also be exempt from the Community Preservation Act surcharge. Applications must be filed each year by April 1, and the Assessor's Office takes questions at 781-545-8712 or assessor@scituatema.gov.

Water plant change order

The board also approved a fifth change order on the new water treatment plant, adding $725,015.89. Most of it, $398,139.22, covers unforeseen site conditions at the Old Oaken Bucket site, where water is drawn before it is pumped to the new plant, after a $65,000 credit from the contractor. The rest pays for building and site changes, $156,820.63; pipe supports, $137,960.20; and fire protection and drainage fixes, $32,095.84. That last item was rework from a design that "could have been a little bit tighter," said Rob Little of Woodard & Curran, the town's engineering firm, which is offsetting it by not billing for about three more months of its full-time inspector on the site.

With this one, change orders on the plant total about $1.87 million, by our math. About $1.1 million of the project's $2.9 million contingency remains, Little told the board. The contractor has asked for 90 more days to reach substantial completion; final completion stays June 8, 2027.

What's next

Department budgets continue at the Select Board's meeting Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 6 p.m. at Town Hall, 600 Chief Justice Cushing Highway, and on Zoom. Library Director Jessi Finnie is on that agenda to present the library's budget, along with the assessors, the town clerk, the Board of Health, the Council on Aging and the recreation and golf departments, and the board is set to vote on Friday greens fees at Widow's Walk, a 2027 to 2032 lease for the golf course's concessions and the new recreation account. The meeting opens with time for walk-ins.

Label: Reported by us.