Casting Ballots on Taxes: Town Meeting, Local Governance, and Proposition 2 1/2’s Limits

PROPOSITION 2 1/2 is a bedrock part of the yearly budget cycle for Massachusetts municipalities. Because it limits the amount of property tax revenues that communities can collect, it restrains how much money these municipalities can spend each year. Although the limits on property tax collection grow slowly every year, cities and towns across the state can override them through voting and new development. This report looks at financial decision-making between FY2014 and FY2024 in the towns that neighbor Worcester: Auburn, Boylston, Grafton, Holden, Leicester, Millbury, Paxton, Shrewsbury, and West Boylston. Each of these communities has had its own unique experience with the constraints of Proposition 2 1/2.