The Town of Southborough has cut its annual funding for economic development from $78,000 to $5,000.
The budget cut was approved by a show‑of‑hands vote during Southborough’s Annual Town Meeting on April 11, citing the town’s experience in securing a Costco Wholesale location without tapping into budgeted resources.
The decision to slash the Economic Development Committee budget came as the Town was expecting a much tougher fiscal year, Southborough Select Board Chair Andrew Dennington said at the meeting.
The tough economic situation facing Southborough and other Massachusetts municipalities played a role, Dennington told WBJ on Thursday.
“Southborough is facing a lot of budget pressure due to inflation, and an imbalance between relatively stagnant commercial real estate and more pressure on the residential real estate tax rate,” Dennington said. “It’s forcing a lot of towns to think about how they manage the budget more tightly … We definitely want more economic development in town.”
The arrival of a new Costco location, which Dennington described as the biggest economic development project in Southborough in a long time, happened organically, he said. That led to a rethinking of the EDC budget.
MySouthborough.com first reported on the budget cut.
The $5,000 left in the budget is intended to be used as discretionary funds, covering any small expenses arising from activities related to economic development, including any additional growth near 21 Coslin Drive, the site of the future Costco.
The move to cut funding for economic development came after the Town was previously considering hiring a full-time economic development coordinator.
Dennington told the crowd at Southborough’s Fall Town Meeting in October 2024 that the Town was at a competitive disadvantage by not having a full-time coordinator, noting many surrounding communities employed one.
Most of Southborough’s neighboring municipalities have full-time staff devoted to economic development, with larger communities like Marlborough and Framingham having their own independent economic development corporations.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the real estate and banking & finance industries.
