Finance Committee approves $912,000 in MEDC transfers, splits on operating budget

MARLBOROUGH -- April 17, 2024, Marlborough Finance Committee splits 4-1 on $762,465 MEDC operating budget, unanimously refills toolbox. The panel on April 17 advanced two transfers from a hotel- and meals-tax special revenue account restricted by a 2011 council vote to economic development: $762,465 to fund MEDC's FY 2025 operations and $150,000 to replenish the small-business toolbox grant program. Executive Director Meredith Harris reported $3.1 million in new growth, 350 new jobs tied to Moderna's $350 million and Sartorius's $100 million expansions, and a commercial vacancy rate of 11.3 percent. Councilor Mark Vital cast the lone no on the operating budget, objecting to a roughly $52,000 part-time-to-full-time senior administrator conversion: "I have other departments…who are looking at why'd you give it to them but not us." Council President Michael Ossing, an MEDC board member, said MEDC "is the major factor in why taxes this year went down."