Littleton Boards Open FY26 Budget Season With $2.2 Million Projected Deficit

LITTLETON — October 7, 2024 — Littleton Select Board opens FY26 budget season facing a $2.2 million structural deficit. In a joint session with the Finance Committee Monday, Town Administrator Jim Duggan presented revised projections showing the gap could reach $6.9 million by fiscal year 2030 under current assumptions, driven by sewer construction debt, senior center debt service, and uncertainty around development at 550 King Street. The boards agreed to seek a joint meeting with the Planning Board and sewer project manager to model revenue scenarios. In other business, the board voted unanimously to pursue a $15,000 grant from Littleton Electric Light and Water for new voting booths — the current booths are more than 21 years old — and to advance a state-grant-funded charter study with the Collins Center at UMass, with a contract vote deferred to the next meeting. The board also approved a revised host community agreement with Community Care Collective after the Cannabis Control Commission rejected the earlier version on procedural grounds, and heard a divisive Planning Board presentation on a Special Town Meeting marijuana zoning article that would cap cultivation licenses at one per type — a restriction Select Board member Gary said he would oppose at town meeting as "too restrictive."