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.