PHILLIPSTON – Voters at tonight’s Special Tonight Meeting will be faced with only two warrant articles on which to act.

The first asks that the $2,711,000 FY25 budget approved at the May 8 Annual Town Meeting be rescinded and replaced by a proposed budget of $2,658,000. Article 2 asks voters to rescind a vote – which also took place on May 8 – to add nearly $57,000 to the stabilization account.

The lesser budget is the result of a proposed $175,000 Proposition 2 ½ override which failed at the recent Town Election.

While the newly proposed budget is about $53,000 less than the one passed in May, it does call for an increase in the maximum salaries available to the town’s department heads. The administrative assistant’s top pay would be bumped from $78,000 to $93,000, that of the fire chief would increase from $39,000 to $45,000, and the police chief’s salary would go from $87,000 to $93,000.

The payroll for the Public Works Department would see an increase from $205,000 to $214,000. The hourly pay for the DPW director is included in that total. According to information provided by Administrative Assistant Melanie Jackson, the director was paid $35.77 per hour for a 40-hour week during the current fiscal year. That amount would go up to $36.67 for FY25, should the new budget be approved. Pay for the Police Department’s administrative assistant was cut from $7,300 to $5,000.

The budget approved at the May Town Meeting included an increase in the reserve account from $40,000 to $75,000. However, the article at the Special Town Meeting calls for that amount to be rolled back to $40,000. Other proposed reductions include $3,000 and $6,000 to the expense accounts of the Board of Assessors and the Selectboard, respectively. The expense accounts of the police, fire, and highway departments would also see minor decreases under the new budget plan.

These reductions – which also include a $29,000 drop in the town’s health insurance costs – are what allows for the proposed pay increases.

While Article 2 calls for rescinding the May 8 vote to add $56,983 to the stabilization account, Jackson pointed out that account currently sits at just over $1 million. She explained the account is set aside from the regular municipal budget in order to cover unexpected emergencies.

“The money is there so that, for example, if the Town Hall or Memorial Building was hit by lightning and seriously damaged, the town would have the funds to do the repairs,” Jackson said.

The funds cannot be used, she said, for everyday line items such as salaries or supplies.

Tonight’s Town Meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Memorial Building, formerly Phillipston Memorial Elementary School, 20 The Common.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@aol.com.