Metrowest Daily News 12/8/11: Tax limit puts strain on town budgets. Many MetroWest communities are operating at their property tax limits and have seen a decrease in local receipts and local aid from Beacon Hill, according to a recently released annual report put out by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, who called fiscal year 2010, "the weakest (in funding) two-year period in the Proposition 2½ era." While on average, Massachusetts communities increased their property taxes by 2 percent, Ashland, Framingham, Holliston, Natick, Sudbury and Wayland are at 0 percent, meaning that property taxes are increased as much as is allowed by proposition 2½, a state law that allows municipalities to increase taxes only up to 2.5 percent annually. “Those communities have raised their taxes to the maximum amount allowed every year,” said Carolyn Ryan, policy analyst at the Taxpayers Foundation. “In an ideal world you would have a bigger space there so that when you hit difficult times, you have room to increase tax without an override but at the same time having a huge difference may indicate that you’re not providing all the services you should.”

Managing Wayland’s Finances By Wayland Finance Committee Much has been written about the questions residents have raised about our free cash balance and our finances. We…

Wayland Patch 3/24/11: Taxes and Budgets and Debt Exclusions, Oh My!. When it comes to taxes, town budgets and debt exclusions (among other financial issues), there seems to be a lot of confusion out there. Rather than muddle through it on our own, Patch went to the experts. Wayland Finance Committee Chair Cherry Karlson and Wayland Town Administrator Fred Turkington sat down to clarify some of the less-than-obvious parts of town finances. The result? Town Finances 101.