Voters at Greenfield’s Town Meeting passed the proposed Capital Reserve Fund (CRF) warrant article Saturday, but only after an amendment to cut the proposed amount of CRF funds by two-thirds failed by just 11 votes. 

The original CRF article requested the town appropriate $313,500, with a tax impact of $1.77 per $1,000 assessed valuation. Larger line items in the fund included $50,000 for fire equipment, $75,000 for highway equipment, $50,000 for repairs to the Meeting House and $100,000 for maintenance of the town’s seven buildings, including the town offices, the police station, the DPW complex and the library.

After many residents expressed distress about the town’s rising taxes, resident Linnea Stevenson proposed the amendment to slash the amount placed in the CRF by two-thirds. The amendment would have reduced the amount placed in the fund for 2024 from $313,500 to $103,780 and reduced the tax impact from $1.77 per thousand to 59 cents per thousand.

“People on fixed incomes can’t afford to live here anymore,” Stevenson said. “I understand that the Capital Reserve Fund is important, but people are not going to be able to pay these taxes when you send out the bills. We have to control what we spend.”

Charles Stevenson also spoke in favor of the amendment.

“People don’t have any more money coming in to pay their tax bills,” he said. “They are being forced out of town because they can’t afford to pay their mortgages and their taxes.”

Ginnie Plourde said of the proposed amendment, “Maybe this how we can meet in the middle.” 

Select Board member Mason Parker advocated at length for the CRF, noting that by placing money in the fund, the town would be able to pay for new equipment as needed out of savings, and be able to avoid taking out high-interest loans. 

“If we have money the in the fund, we are earning interest. If we don’t have any savings and we suddenly need to a buy a new emergency vehicle or truck for the Highway Department, we end up taking out a lease agreement or lean and paying high interest, so it is a double whammy,” Parker said. 

Parker noted that the development of the town budget is a year-long process and that the Select Board welcomes and encourages the participation from community members.

“We meet every Thursday night, and hardly anyone comes,” he said. “We invite every resident in town to come and be a part of this process all year long while we work on our budget.” 

After Roger Lessard called for the question to be moved forward, the hand vote was deemed too close to call, resulting in a standing vote. The supervisors of the checklist recounted the results at 60 people in favor of the proposed amendment to reduce the CRF and 71 against. After the amendment failed, the article establishing the fund.

After the vote, Sheila Nichols spoke up and thanked the Select Board, town employees and town volunteers for their service, which was met with applause. 

“This is not their fault,” she said. “They are trying to manage the town budget and save money just like we all do with our households.”

At the close of discussions about the budget, Parker reminded the crowd that 60% of residents’ tax bills go to the ConVal School District. 

“If you have a tax bill of $1,800, $1,300 goes to ConVal, and only $500 stays in our town. All this past three hours of discussion and arguing, we were only talking about that $500 portion of the bill,” Parker said. “All the rest goes to the schools.”

Continuing comments about Greenfield’s property taxes, which are among the highest in the state, led to a discussion about the high percentage of non-taxable land in Greenfield.

“Nearly 25% of the land in town cannot be taxed,” Select Board member Tom Bascom explained. “There is about $150 million worth of land which we cannot tax.” 

Greenfield nonprofits include the Barbara C. Harris Center, Brantwood Camp, the Crotched Mountain Foundation, Seven Hills at Crotched Mountain and Plowshare Farm. Non-taxable land in town also includes Greenfield Commons senior housing, Greenfield State Park, the state boat ramp access at Powdermill Pond and North Pack National Wildlife Refuge. 

Parker said that Seven Hills has agreed to pay a voluntary payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) of $100,000 to the town, but it is not yet at full operational capacity. Fire Chief Jeff LaCourse praised Seven Hills’ improvements to the alarm system, as well as extensive safety improvements to the campus, and said the number of calls to the campus has been greatly reduced since the property changed hands. 

An article that asked for appropriations for $447,500 for a CAT road grader was widely supported by residents. DPW Director Jim Morris said the current grader “is on its last legs.” Several residents praised the DPW’s efforts during mud season, and the crowd applauded when Town Administrator Aaron Patt said “the town could have the new grader by Tuesday.” 

The additional warrant articles on the ballot all passed.