The Charlestown Town Council’s 2026–2027 Budget and Addressing an Emergency
What: Budget Public Hearing on the 2026–2027 Charlestown Municipal Budget
When: Monday, May 4 at 7 p.m
Where: Charlestown Town Hall
Town Moderator David Wilkinson will gavel the Budget Public Hearing to order on Monday, May 4. The purpose of the public hearing is to present the Town Council’s proposed municipal budget to the voters and to hear their questions and comments. The Chariho budget was already approved by the voters on April 7.
Following the Budget Public Hearing, the Town Council will hold a special meeting on May 6 at 6 pm at the Town Hall to discuss any input they have received from voters regarding the municipal budget.
The Town Council may make additional revisions and then will vote to submit its proposed budget to the Financial Referendum, which will be held on June 1.
Budget Details
The budget developed by the Budget Commission was transmitted to the Town Council at the end of March. The overall budget had increased by 4.96%, and the tax revenue needed had increased by 2.5%. The assessed value of real estate has increased by 21%.
General Fund Tax Revenue for the fiscal year beginning July 1 will be $25.08 million, an increase of 2.5%, and Operating Expenses Before Capital Transfers for the year beginning July 1 will be $30.69 million, an increase of 5.15%. The Commission projected that the tax rate could be decreased substantially to keep the taxpayer levy to an increase of 2.5%.
The budget was first discussed by the Town Council in a special meeting on April 1. See the transmittal letter from the Budget Commission for the memorandum transmitted with the budget.
At the April 1 meeting, the Town Council made small revisions to line items in the budget:
- $77,897.09 was added to the budget for next year’s payment for the new street sweeper approved by the Council.
- $3,000 was added to the amount budgeted for Client Assistance.
- $20,000 was added for the 250th Committee.
- The $285,000 allocated for dredging (Pond and Beach Preservation) was increased to $300,000.
In its transmittal, the Budget Commission noted that there are only “minimal additional investments” in its budget.
Addressing an Emergency
Therefore, as part of the consideration of the budget at the April 1 meeting, the Town Council discussed the needed repairs to the Town Hall; that is, the repairs needed as the result of ice dams that formed on the Town Hall roof over the winter, trapping melting snow and caused water to leak through the ceilings and down the walls throughout the building as well as the leaks around the 61 aging windows that are in very poor condition.
These problems were seen as an emergency—one that needed to be addressed immediately to prevent further damage to the building.
However, because the costs estimated by Town Administrator Jeff Allen exceed the amount in the Capital Maintenance Account and because the town’s Unassigned Fund Balance is estimated at approximately 27% of the operating budget, the Town Council decided that it could, in the current fiscal year, move the amount in the Unassigned Fund Balance in excess of 25% of the town’s operating budget from the Unassigned Fund Balance to the Capital Maintenance Fund to address the emergency. The item was placed on the April 13 agenda so that cost estimates could be gathered by Town Administrator Allen.
The issues were discussed again on April 13 and then again on April 27.
On April 27, the Town Council voted to transfer $650,000 from the Unassigned Fund Balance to the Capital Maintenance Account. The funds are thus available immediately because the transfer occurred in the current fiscal year and not through the budget process.
As a result of this transfer, it is projected that the Unassigned Fund Balance will be 25% of the operating budget.
There will be future capital maintenance/repairs needed as well. As part of the capital budget discussion, the Town Council voted to produce a Request for Proposal “to get a top-down improvement plan with numbers on the problems and current and future maintenance at all town facilities.”
These can then be addressed in the Five-Year Capital Improvement Program that is mandated by state law and by Charlestown’s Home Rule Charter and that the Town Administrator currently has under way. Projects, priorities, costs, methods of financing, and timing will be part of the process.
Again, taxpayers will want to be aware that if expenditures continue to increase as they have in the last few years, achieving the balance between maintaining a relatively low tax rate and providing necessary services will continue to be, as the Budget Commission observed, “particularly challenging.”
The Town Council cannot draw down Unassigned Fund Balance year after year to lower/maintain a relatively low tax rate without jeopardizing services and /or without, eventually, services being reduced or the tax rate increased substantially.
For further details on this issue, see “Town Council Meeting on 2026–2027 Budget.” https://charlestowncitizens.org/2026/03/28/town-council-meeting-on-2026-2027-municipal-budget/
Note that the narratives in the budget contain initial proposals and original budget requests from the Departments. To see the new changes, taxpayers need to look at the budget itself to see what has changed.
Bonnie Van Slyke, the author of this post, won a seat on the Town Council in the December 2, 2025 election, and she was sworn in to her Town Council seat at the January 12, 2026 Town Council meeting. You can learn more about Bonnie on her profile page.