Abington approves override -- barely

In Abington, a $650,000 override to help fund the upcoming year’s trash disposal services passed by only three votes over the weekend, with 679 in favor and 676 opposed.

According to the Town Clerk’s office, there is already talk in town of a recount. Signatures of 10 voters in each of the town’s four precincts, for a total of 40 signatures in all, are required for a recount of the ballots, and voters have 10 days to petition for a recount. If the $650,000 operational budget override stands, it will add $116 per year to the tax bill of an median priced home in town, which runs about $350,000.

The money will go to cover trash disposal expenses for the upcoming year. Residents were faced with the choice of approving the override or paying fees for their trash disposal needs, based on votes taken at the Annual Town Meeting earlier this month. The amount of the fees had not yet been calculated. The last operational budget override Abington voters passed was back for fiscal 1992. That one, for $575,000, was also for the town’s trash disposal account.

Operational overrides in Abington, to date, have about the same success rate as those proposed for budgets statewide: Since the Proposition 2 ½ tax cap went into effect in 1982, voters have defeated four operational overrides – two for fiscal 1989, one for 1992, and a $1.5 million for fiscal 2004.

They have now passed three overrides: the two above-mentioned tax increases related to trash disposal, along with a third, for $503,000 to cover a number of operational expenses for fiscal 1990.

Christine Legere