Select Board votes down meals tax restructuring

Select Board · Meeting of October 7, 2026

Ashland's Select Board voted 5-0 to oppose two citizen's petitions that would have split the town's local meals tax revenue evenly between an Economic Development Stabilization Fund and a Resident Services Stabilization Fund. Assistant Town Manager Beth Reynolds warned the move risked "losing an important source of revenue and the progress we have made over the past decade." Board member Claudia Bennett said acting outside the budget process was "problematic" and that the proposal "kind of has a flavor of pitting one department against another." Interim Town Manager Catherine Bird disclosed a preliminary $643,000 new-growth shortfall, part of a combined gap exceeding $1 million, to be addressed at a November 10 special town meeting. The board also voted unanimously to hire the Collins Center for Public Management, for about $15,000, to search for Ashland's next town manager, and rescinded Joel Arbeitman's appointment to the Upper Charles Trail Committee.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
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• The complete report — 3,479 words

Source: the Select Board meeting of October 7, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Correction (Nov. 3, 2026): An earlier version of this story said the petitions would create library and senior-center funds; they would create an Economic Development Stabilization Fund and a Resident Services Stabilization Fund. It also credited Claudia Bennett's remark about pitting departments against each other to other members, misstated Yolanda Greaves's one-time-fund figures, and credited several remarks to people the recording does not identify; those remarks are now unattributed.