LYNNFIELD – With 65% of voters in favor of the $4.65 million override for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26), the override passed in Wednesday’s special election.
There were 2,936 votes tallied by 8:10 p.m. Wednesday night, which were released verbally by Town Clerk Amanda Haggstrom solely as raw data and had not yet been certified. According to Haggstrom’s uncertified data, there were 1,894 votes in favor of the override against only 1,041 votes against it. There are 10,082 registered voters in Lynnfield.
Precinct 4 had the most votes in favor of the override, with 570, followed by precinct 1, with 508 votes, precinct 2 with 418 votes and precinct 1 with the fewest votes in favor of the override at 398.
Precinct 4 also led the charge in votes against the override, with 295, followed by precinct 3, with 274 votes, precinct 1 with 265 votes and precinct 3 with the fewest votes at 274.
The override includes the $4 million to restore budgets that were unable to be accounted for in the balanced FY 26 budget and the $650,000 investment in school technology.
The Town of Lynnfield has not had a tax override since 2012, according to Town Administrator Rob Dolan. He added that Market Street and COVID relief money allowed the town to sustain without an override for over a decade.
The budget strains which caused the need for this override are:
- Minimal new growth
- Historic inflation and energy costs
- Non-discretionary budget increases outpacing the increase of revenue year over year
- Non-discretionary budget increases for FY26 are more than FY26 new revenue.
The immediate benefits of the passing of this override are:
- Restoring the school budget of $3,388,698
- Restoring the school bus budget of $200,000
- Restoring the library budget of $300,524 and regaining accreditation
- Restoring the senior center budget of $149,984
With its passing, the override’s average annual impact to the taxpayers will be $898.72. Those costs are based on the average single-family house of $1,045,013.
This override was well-known as a “school-based override” since the restoration of the school budget accounted for a significant majority of the override. Prior to learning that it had passed, Kathleen Dario – who worked with Lynnfield Public Schools for two decades and had children go through the school system – explained why she voted in its favor.
“We’re nothing without our schools, in my opinion. Our schools are what we’re known for. That’s what people think about us. And our teachers and staff are too precious to not support them. They’ve been amazing,” she said.
Superintendent Thomas Geary said after the vote was called that he was grateful for the support and that he looked “forward to being able to continue the great work that we’ve been doing to give our students and all families the first class education they deserve.”
