Stoneham Override Study Committee Elects Officers, Charts 12-Meeting Schedule Toward September Report

STONEHAM — July 16, 2025 — Stoneham's Override Study Committee held its first meeting July 16, unanimously electing Steven Tannullo as vice chair and Eric Scruggs as recording secretary before setting a 12-session schedule running through September 30. The eight-member panel — chaired by Finance and Advisory Board member Joseph Jopfi and including Select Board member Heidi Bilbo and School Committee member Corey Mashburn — is charged with advising the Select Board on whether to recommend a new Proposition 2½ operating override for fiscal years 2027 through 2029. Town Administrator Dennis Sheehan briefed the committee on the town's fiscal constraints, noting that roughly 75 percent of Stoneham's operating revenue comes from property taxes capped at 2.5 percent annual growth, that the town's stabilization fund was drawn down by $1.2 million to balance the FY26 budget, and that a rising charter school sending-tuition assessment and 12 percent health-insurance cost increase are compounding the structural gap. Members debated why the prior override attempt — which grew from roughly $9.2 million to a final ask of $14.6 million over four years — failed at the ballot, with Sheehan cautioning that releasing new dollar figures before agreeing on underlying assumptions risks repeating the same public confusion.