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To the Editor:
I initially approached Reading’s proposed $6.5 million tax override with considerable skepticism. After examining the town’s budgets and financial reports, my view has changed. Reading faces real financial pressures, and I found more evidence of responsible financial management than I expected. But I also found something that concerns me: our increasing reliance on Free Cash to pay recurring expenses.
Think of a family that receives an annual bonus. Using that bonus for an unexpected expense makes sense. But if the family begins depending on it to pay the mortgage and groceries, eventually it has a problem. The expenses are permanent; the bonus isn’t.
Reading is using approximately $6.5 million of Free Cash to support the FY27 budget—considerably more than the town expects to regenerate annually. The proposed override would replace much of that temporary revenue with permanent tax revenue.
That may now be necessary. But it leaves me with an equally important question:
What are we going to do differently so that we don’t end up here again?
Whatever voters decide about the override, I hope town leaders explain not only how we solve today’s problem, but how we prevent ourselves from recreating it.
Henry M. Frechette Jr.
Reading
