Whitman Finance Committee eyes $300,000 public safety holdover ahead of town meeting

WHITMAN -- December 16, 2025, Whitman Finance Committee reviews tight fiscal outlook with $600,000 in projected new revenue against $3.3 million in capital requests. Chair Mike Warner summarized a joint Board of Selectmen session the night before, telling members the roughly $600,000 in additional revenue for fiscal year 2027 is "a drop in the ocean" given pension obligations and outstanding debt. A committee member identified with a budget working group said three competing school funding models produced by a Board of Selectmen working group were "as far apart from each other" as possible and that no school representative had participated. A proposed special town meeting warrant would spend close to $300,000 to hold police and fire budgets harmless in fiscal 2026, drawing scrutiny from members who said the money should be available to the whole town if it is available at all. The Capital Committee reports $3.3 million in requests with roughly $500,000 to fund them, and the new Whitman Middle School project was reported ahead of schedule and under budget, with a three-to-five-million-dollar MSBA reimbursement expected before year-end.