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The Finance Committee welcomed Town Manager Andy Sheehan for a Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) budget hearing on the evening of March 2, and attendees learned just how a previously-anticipated FY27 override was averted.
The short answer is that new growth (new tax revenue from construction, renovation and property improvements) came in stronger than anticipated. Assistant Town Manager and Finance Director Victor Garofalo told the committee “Certain things came in, especially new growth, that prevented that [FY27] override. So again, this is the best information we have looking to the future, but things can change. The Eversource new growth number came in a lot higher than we anticipated, which then allowed us to be able to balance a budget in Fiscal Year 27 that we had [previously] projected as a deficit budget in Fiscal Year 27.”
The new growth from Eversource is classified as person property. Garofalo noted “And when it comes to personal property, there is no added services to personal property. It’s not like you’re adding new children, or new kids, or there’s new fire needed. So, I mean, a lot of our new growth, you know, in the last couple years has been personal property, Eversource being a big chunk of that.”
The Town of Sudbury spent years fighting the Eversource transmission line project in court, but lost repeatedly. The project, which was paired with the Department of Conservation and Recreations efforts to construct the Sudbury section of the Mass Central Rail Trail, ultimately got the green light and was completed promptly. Today, the Mass Central Rail Trail in Sudbury is not officially open, but much of the paving has already been completed and the last components of the project are expected to be completed this year.
In November of 2025, the Sudbury Select Board closed out the funds that were set aside for litigation on the Eversource project. Just months prior to that, a report determined that magnetic field exposure levels from the transmission lines were near-zero or far below established reference levels.
The revenue the Town is collecting through taxes on the transmission line may not be of much comfort to residents who voiced concerns about the potential environmental impacts of the transmission lines. However, pushing out a potential override and erasing a forecasted deficit is a significant development at a time when economic uncertainty is spiking and municipalities are reporting gloomy fiscal outlooks.