Granby Finance Committee Warns Town Is Nearing Fiscal Breaking Point

GRANBY — April 29, 2026 — Granby Finance Committee flags fiscal crisis, depleted reserves, and Forge Pond Dam costs in annual overview. The committee met April 29 to finalize its budget overview report for Town Meeting, reconciling school spending figures that trace a corrected total state aid increase of 1.9 percent and a school appropriation that has grown from a $300,000 permanent override to roughly $890,000 in annual additional funding. Members warned that the general purpose stabilization fund has fallen to approximately $30,000 — "not a rainy day fund, not a shower fund, not even a mist fund," one member said — leaving the town with almost no fiscal buffer as the Forge Pond Dam rehabilitation, budgeted at $2.9 million and submitted to the state, and a deteriorating junior-senior high school building present converging capital obligations. The committee agreed to recommend that the Select Board form a special committee with outside professional help to align services with available revenue, and voted to ask the Select Board's communications subcommittee to include explanatory language on free cash and stabilization funds in its Town Meeting handout.