Southampton Town Meeting Warrant Covers Budget, Override Options, and Land Conservation

SOUTHAMPTON — April 23, 2026 — Southampton's Town Moderator previews a 25-article warrant ahead of a May 2 Annual Town Meeting featuring a $15.9 million base budget and two Proposition 2½ override options. Town Moderator Robert Floyd read all articles aloud at an April 23 information session on community access television, covering a base operating budget of $15,936,813.64 funded largely from taxation, plus supplemental override options of either $2,517,535.96 or $1,926,947.20 contingent on a May 19 ballot vote. Southampton's assessed share of the Hampshire Regional School District budget would be $6,281,651 under Article 3. Community Preservation Act spending requests total more than $498,000 across seven articles, headlined by a $400,000 transfer to the Affordable Housing Trust and a $547,800 conservation restriction acquisition of the Triple Brook property on Middle Road, the latter contingent on securing at least $498,498 in outside grant funding. Governance articles would repeal the Capital Improvement Committee, expand Finance Committee duties to cover capital planning, convert the Treasurer-Collector to an appointed position, and eliminate the town caucus nomination process; a separate citizens' petition seeks to cut the CPA surcharge from 3 percent to 1 percent of the real estate tax levy.