Debt Exclusion Question Dominates Rehoboth Town Election

When voters go to the polls on Tuesday, they will be asked to approve a temporary tax increase, known as a debt exclusion, to pay the town's share of the Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School building project.

Last November, voters rejected a debt exclusion to pay for the $305 million project. Selectman Michael Deignan explained the town would have to pay between $550,000 and $600,000 annually. The building project was approved in March 2022.

Although the project was rejected in Rehoboth, there were enough votes for passage in the member communities which included Berkley, Bridgewater, Dighton, Middleborough, Raynham, and Taunton.

"If you vote not to approve the debt exclusion, then there will be reductions," Selectman Chair Skip Vadnais said on March 27. "They will be municipal and they will be educational."

The Massachusetts School Building Authority provided authorization for a Project Funding Agreement for the Bristol-Plymouth project in September 2021. The agreement includes reimbursement of 62.25 percent of eligible project costs up to a maximum reimbursement amount of $125, 569, 759 toward construction of a modern Bristol-Plymouth school facility.