Ending months of sometimes tense negotiations with the Mayor, the City Council voted to approve the Mayor’s FY24 budget of $499,710,209 General Fund allocations with an additional $70, 306,117 for Community Preservation, Water, Sewer, and Stormwater funds, for a total of $570,016,326. (See FY2024 Budget, FY2024-2028 CIP, and FY2024-2028 Supplemental CIP).
The Full Council deliberated the budget in two nights, although committees reviewed each department’s budget beginning on April 20th. Six budget resolutions were offered by Councilors to the Mayor and School Department and each was discussed, debated, and received a response. See Fig City News Budget Resolutions article.
After receiving all of the budget reports and responses to the budget resolutions, the Council voted to approve the budget and the FY2024 Capital Improvement Plan and FY2024 Supplemental Capital Improvement Plan. Ward 3 Councilor Julia Malakie cast a “protest” vote against the Capital Improvement Project funding because of the $2,200,000 ARPA allocation for artificial turf for Newton North High School and Albemarle Field. According to Councilor Malakie, artificial turf contains “forever” chemicals (e.g. PFAs). Using ARPA funds bypasses Council involvement since the Mayor has total authority to dispense ARPA dollars.
After the final vote on the FY24 budget, Council President Albright invited the Mayor to address the Council. She thanked them for their support, and for the work of the GLAM group (Councilors Grossman, Lipof, Albright, and Markiewicz) who had been strategizing for a year about how to fund city services. And, she singled Councilor Gentile for proposing “interesting” budget approaches and those who pressed the case for extending the phasing out of the reduced Medicare Part B contribution and retaining it for some retirees. She also reviewed the hardships of the last three years and their negative impact on the economy, schools, and City Hall and the challenges ahead.
The Budget Process
Last year, although the FY23 budget went into effect, the City Council voted not to approve the FY23 budget.
In conversation with Fig City News, post-budget, President Albright emphasized the lack of budgetary control power granted to the Council. She expressed satisfaction with the reduction in pension funding while securing benefits for retirees. “We made inroads this year and we will revisit the pension funding in three years.”
Finance Chair Grossman agreed that “Procedurally we were out of options. Last year the confines of the law and what we can and cannot do crystallized the process for us.” Last year, she voted “no” on the final budget, and expressed her wish that the mayor had included more money for the schools, but was also satisfied with the preservation of some contributions to retirees with annual incomes at or below 65% of AMI. And, she promised that GLAM would continue to “bounce off ideas.”
Josh Krintzman, Programs and Services Chair of the City Council, who presented the budget for many city departments, commented that it made no sense for Council members to vote “no” as a protest against underfunding. He supported the override and has been frustrated that it didn’t pass.
And, City Council veteran Lenny Gentile, who proposed three of the budget resolutions and advocated for bonding projects like Horace Mann and Lincoln Eliot rather than using “free cash” said, “if I were mayor I’d want the flexibility.” Councilor Gentile who is in his thirty-fourth year on the Council, said that Newton has never been in such a strong cash position. Although he has opposed aspects of the budget, he cast “aye” votes this year and last year.
