Southwick Boards Target 10 Percent Budget Cut, Plan Letter to Regional School District

SOUTHWICK — April 7, 2026 — Southwick's Select Board and Finance Committee reached informal consensus Tuesday on a 10 percent reduction target for town-side departmental budgets in fiscal year 2027 and agreed to draft a joint letter pressing the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District to do the same. Under the level-funded scenario, the town would need to draw approximately $2.532 million from free cash to balance the operating budget; a 10 percent reduction would lower that draw to $2.279 million, leaving roughly $1 million for capital spending. Members pointed to the regional school assessment — projected at nearly $16.5 million in fiscal year 2027, up from just over $12 million in fiscal year 2023 — as the central budget pressure, with a state circuit breaker figure of approximately $472,000 against a district ask roughly $1 million above that baseline. "You're asking everybody to cut — you're the big dog in the room, step up," one board member said of the school district. The joint session also confirmed capital spending on a new fire engine (near $1 million, vendor to be chosen April 9), a $65,000 salt shed roof, EMS stair-chair stretchers, police tasers and defibrillators, and polling pad tablets for the town clerk's office.