State Compels Williamstown to Submit Simplified Monthly Spending Plan

The Williamstown Select Board Monday afternoon approved a new dollar figure for the town's 1/12th budget spending plan after the state told the town to submit a higher amount.

Town Manager Jason Hoch went to the board asking it to approve a budget of $2,130,000 for the month of July, $777,000 more than the Select Board previously OK'd based on Hoch's projection of the town's actual expenses for next month.

The biggest change is that the new, higher figure, includes 1/12th of the local tax revenue that Williamstown paid in fiscal 2020 for the Mount Greylock Regional School District. Previously, Hoch had left it out of his projections for July (the first month of FY21) because the town pays its assessment to the district on a quarterly basis, and the first bill is not due until September.

The net effect is no real change for taxpayers. About $766,000 in the new 1/12th budget would have been added into a September 1/12th budget had the town gone forward with the process Hoch implemented last month. That plan calculated a $1.3 million July budget that the Select Board and Finance Committee reviewed in late May.

Read all the details now at iBerkshires.Com.