The override passed. Problem solved. Back to business as usual. Not! The basic problems are still there. To have the school system and town services we want, we need more revenue than we can raise from property taxes and local aid. As hard as town officials and volunteers have worked in the last several months, they need to get right back to the drawing board to figure out how to balance resources and needs in the coming years. It won’t be good enough to go through the same old budget process: starting in December building bottom-up budgets; figuring out in March how big a gap there is between a no-override budget and the sum of all the department budgets, debating override tiers and menus, voting a budget at Town Meeting, failing to get the needed override, another budget, another vote, etc.

For sure, everyone should take a little break, but please, come back to the table soon. Find ways to work collaboratively, across boards, across town and schools (maybe even across neighboring towns and Devens?), to find ways to spend more efficiently, raise revenue more creatively, expand the commercial base, and eliminate the “structural deficit” we’ve been talking about for too long.