Halifax Town Meeting Approves $999,777 Override Ask for FY27 Ballot

HALIFAX — May 11, 2026 — Halifax Annual Town Meeting rewrites its override ask from $1.5 million to $999,777 after a last-minute $625,000 accounting discovery upended the budget. Town Administrator Stephen Sobo disclosed Friday, May 8, that approximately $625,000 in budget compilation discrepancies had emerged, prompting a cascade of floor amendments at Monday's meeting in the elementary school gymnasium. After a counted vote defeated a no-override school funding plan 253 to 153, Selectman Jonathan Seeley offered a compromise that set the elementary school appropriation at $7,532,438 — backed by the Finance Committee 5 to 2 — and preserved roughly $200,000 of the Silver Lake assessment correction for the general fund rather than routing it entirely to schools. The final override figure of $999,777 includes restored police wages of $150,021, fire wages of $140,000, and elementary school costs of $375,385, among other line items; the Saturday ballot will still show the original $1.5 million question, with Town Administrator Sobo noting the town would be taxed only on what was appropriated — an estimated $276.73 annual increase on a home assessed at the Halifax average of $532,178. Article 8, which would have converted the elected highway surveyor position to an appointed one, failed on a voice vote after Highway Surveyor Steve Hayward argued he performs five roles for $84,000 that would cost far more if split among appointed specialists.