Disclosure: The author is a current member of the Middleborough Finance Committee and served as its chair from April 2024 to April 2025.
By John Barrella
July 28, 2026
MIDDLEBOROUGH – As Middleborough continues to work through the fallout of this year’s budget crisis, town officials have a direct line to legal guidance that could prove valuable in the months ahead.
The Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Division of Local Services (DLS) offers a free weekly service called “Ask DLS Law,” giving local officials a chance to speak directly with the Bureau’s legal counsel on municipal finance law questions — no appointment necessary. The service runs every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon via Zoom, with officials addressed in the order they arrive in the virtual waiting room. The next session is scheduled for Wednesday, July 29.
For Middleborough, the timing could hardly be more relevant. The town is still absorbing the aftermath of a budget built by former Town Manager Jay McGrail that was according to current Middleborough Interim Town Manager Joseph Perkins, “gross fiscal mismanagement and this (budget crisis) was preventable”.
McGrail’s predecessor, Bob Nunes, stated the budget was “millions of dollars out of balance,” with allegations that local aid figures were inflated by $700,000 and state assessments were underfunded by $800,000, alongside an unrealistic $1.6 million bump projected in local receipts. The confirmed $3.3 million dollar shortfall forced a delay of April’s Annual Town Meeting, pushing it to June 1, and triggered a revised $109 million budget with cuts across town departments before voters finally weighed in.
With residents, town officials, and the Finance Committee still sorting through what went wrong — and with questions lingering about the town’s books heading into a new fiscal year — direct access to DLS’s legal and technical guidance offers Middleborough’s elected officials a resource that costs nothing but could carry real weight: a chance to get finance-law questions answered by the same state authority tasked with helping municipalities avoid exactly the kind of budget breakdown Middleborough has just lived through.
For elected officials who are interested in joining tomorrow’s call at 10AM, please access the DLS event utilizing the link below.
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