Arlington - Tax Override overview for Caregivers of Littles

elaine u
7 hours ago
3 min read

Arlington Family Connection does not take a side for or against the override, but there are a lot of items on the budget that caregivers of little kids are likely interested in. To serve this purpose, we've decided to try our best to give an impartial summary of the tax override vote on March 28th (a Saturday!). There is no official campaign against the override, but the official campaign for the override can be found at https://yesforarlington.org Much of the information pulled for this write up comes from the information sourced on this website.

What is the tax override?

In MA, local towns have a fixed percentage they can raise property tax - 2.5% across all real estate in a town. Prior to this law, towns could project their expenses, create a budget, and set the taxes to match. Now, a town must propose a property tax increase as a ballot question if it above this limit. Arlington will have a ballot question to approve a tax override totaling 14.8 million to cover their budget deficit. https://yourarlington.com/2026/02/override-set-02132026/ If you are curious to learn more about the origins of this tax limit, this podcast from wgbh gives good background on it.

Are there other sources of revenue for the town?

This gives a good summary on the other very limited sources of revenue for the town: https://yesforarlington.org/arlingtons-budget/#How-Do-We-Balance-The-Budget

This podcast also gives some recent information around how local towns are trying to survive the fiscal constraints caused by prop 2 1/2.

How much will property taxes go up?

There is a calculator for how much this will increase your taxes for the year here:

https://yesforarlington.org/about-the-override/#How-Will-The-Override-Affect-My-Taxes?

The operating override is divided across all residential and business owners in Arlington depending on the assessed value of their property. It will cost $92 annually for every $100,000 of assessed home value. The increase will first appear on your quarterly tax bill on starting July 1, 2026. You can look up the assessed value of your home at this website.

When will there be another override?

The Select Board voted unanimously to commit to not request another override before FY30, which begins on July 1, 2029. In other words, the town is committing to avoid another override for at least three years.

https://yesforarlington.org/about-the-override/

What cuts do caregivers need to be aware of?

Even if the override passes (more people vote yes), Arlington is doing a 10% budget cut across all departments. Even more services will be cut if it fails.

If the override fails (more people vote no), there are some cuts that would be a hit to the caregiving community of littles. The campaign for voting yes has a more comprehensive lists of cuts https://yesforarlington.org/proposed-cuts/

Little kids will likely feel the impact in these areas:

Libraries: Closing the Fox Library in FY28, Reduced Hours at Robbins, potentially lose library accreditation (which impacts ability to borrow from other libraries and apply for grants for funding)
Large School Cuts: Reduced staffing (120 head count cut), Increased classroom size, Increased fees for several fee based programs, Elimination of World Languages in the 6th grade (and the entire Mandarin and Latin Program), Elimination of some AP classes and electives, much more details on the proposed cuts page
Cross Department Layoffs in Police, Fire, Public Works and other departments
Reduction in town offered community events and programming (car seat safety inspection, children's camps, tuck a truck, fire house and police station tours, RAD self defense classes, Reduction in mental health support provided by AYCC (Arlington Youth Counseling Center), etc )