In fiscal year 2002, cities and towns in Massachusetts attempted 69 overrides of property tax limits in order to increase their budgets.

In 2004, the year after the state severely cut back on local aid, the number jumped to 164 override attempts, followed by 155 the next year and 154 this year.

Local officials said the numbers are evidence of what they already know: rising costs, less state help and demand for services is pressuring municipal budgets to the breaking point.

Increasingly, they say, exceeding the property tax limits set by Proposition 2 1/2 is their only option.

`` We've seen a lot of override attempts, pretty much all over the place in the past three years,'' said John Robertson of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. `` And the fiscal pressure is not going to go away.'' Norton Town Manger Jim Purcell said that when the state cut local aid heading into the fiscal 2003 budget year, many cities and towns spent their reserves to make up the difference.

When the reserves were depleted, they turned to overrides.

Some of the aid is being restored this year, but it still does not match the 2002 levels for many communities.

Norton Town Meeting will be asked whether to put an override before voters this spring.

The final figure has not been determined yet, but it could run as high as $2.2 million. That would mean a 99 cent per $1,000 increase in the tax rate, or about $345 a year for an average home, he said.

Wrentham is also considering an override of about $1.13 million to close a budget gap. If approved, that measure would result in a $300 tax increase for the average home.

Plainville last year approved an override so it could hire three additional firefighters.

Selectman Chairman Robert Rose said without the override, even that relatively modest increase in personnel would have been impossible.

`` There is a lot of pressure on towns and resources are limited,'' he said.

Rose said the biggest budget buster is health care costs for town employees. He said Plainville, like most towns, has seen its health insurance costs jump by 10 to 15 percent a year for the past several years while revenue growth is limited to roughly 2.5 percent.

`` We can't survive years of continuously growing at that rate,'' he said.

In 2001, he said, Plainville spent $459,000 on health insurance. This coming year it will spend an estimated $1.3 million.

Not only are cost going up, but more employees are joining the town health plan because insurance at their spouses' jobs has either become too expensive, or has been eliminated, he said.

Energy costs and state mandates for education spending are also rising faster than tax growth, local officials said.

Chip Faulkner one of the founding members of Citizens for Limited Taxation, the group that originated Proposition 2 1/2 , said it does not have to be like this.

He said cities and towns should do a better job controlling costs rather than turn to tax hikes.

In the area of health insurance, for instance, he said municipalities should move to plans with high deductibles because they are less expensive.

`` These guys do nothing to reign them in,'' he said of the costs.

A Wrentham resident, Faulkner said part of the problem is a lack of good management.

He said one trend he has noticed is that cities and towns are going for overrides for routine operating expenses more than in the past.

Requests for overrides to add money for the budget often get defeated whereas pushing for an override to exclude debt costs for projects like new police stations is looked upon more favorably, he said.

The debt exclusion only temporarily raises taxes as they come off the books once the borrowing has been paid off.

Faulkner said overrides for operating budgets not only raise taxes permanently, but the also increase the tax base from which towns can add on to the following year.

He does concede, however, that state and federal mandates are the cause of some of the increased spending on the local level.

That is why Citizens for Limited Taxation believes education should be paid for by the state and not from the local property tax, he said.

Faulkner said cities and towns are also increasing fees, such as those for trash pick up, to get around tax limits.

`` I always thought if you are paying four grand to the town for property taxes, the least they could do is pick up the trash,'' he said.

Tom Parker, an unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Attleboro, accused the city last fall of raising fees beyond the actual cost of services in order to get around Proposition 2 1/2 tax limits.

The city has raised sewer, water, and building inspection fees over the past two years ranging from 30 to 200 percent.

Mayor Kevin Dumas briefly suggested the city look into a tax override when he came into office two years ago, but quickly dropped the idea.

Faulkner said the high cost of municipal government is starting to drive some residents out of the state.

He said friends of his were paying $3,300 a year in property taxes in Wrentham four years ago.

They moved to South Carolina and are now paying $942 a year, he said.

But, Faulkner contends, as expensive as things are now, they would be much worse if Proposition 2 1/2 did not pass 26 years ago.

`` If Proposition 2 1/2 did not exist, your property tax bill would be probably two to three times what it is now,'' he said.