OP-ED: Response to Mayor Fuller’s financial forecast

Mayor Fuller’s address introducing the City’s Long-Range Financial Plan to the City Council on October 6 (also transmitted in her newsletter) contained the same contradiction that we hear from this Mayor in every fiscal address: The City’s financial health is very strong and yet doomed at the same time. Setting aside that conflicting message, there are some basic facts that need to be corrected.

The actual NPS FY26 operating budget is $296.4 million

Mayor Fuller’s address and presentation repeatedly referred to an NPS FY26 (current year) budget of $292.9 million, which was her proposed number. However, the budget originally passed by the School Committee on April 1, 2025 was $296.4 million. What happened? The gap between the two was filled with City free cash funding of $3.5 million. (There were also other adjustments up and down, due to unexpected healthcare cost increases and NPS reductions to counteract them.) 

It is worth noting that some of the reductions made by NPS were temporary to make the numbers work for the current year but will be incurred in future years. Healthcare costs are not going down, and spending and hiring freezes are not sustainable. As such, the number that NPS should be building off for its FY27 budget is not the $292.9 million that the Mayor states but the $296.4 million that NPS will expend this year.

The $292.9 million number became the “official” number of the NPS budget, despite not reflecting economic reality, only after the Mayor threatened to pull the City’s free cash funding from NPS if the School Committee ultimately passed $296.4 million as the final budget. Based on this, I refused to vote in favor of a motion using language demanded by the Mayor.

One cannot pretend that the very real expenses incurred by NPS to provide for our students were never incurred. That would create the illusion that year-over-year percentage increases keep pace with needs, while they do not.

The myth of 3.5% City growth

The Mayor states that 3.5% is the rate of growth of City revenues, and therefore must also be the rate of growth that NPS accepts going forward (though using an erroneous starting point as detailed above). This has been the City’s assumption for years. Yet for the 10-year period from FY15 to FY25, the total operating budget of the City has grown 4.2% per year, while the NPS operating budget has grown 3.7% per year (see slide 26 here). There simply is no basis for this perpetual 3.5% growth forecast — a level at which NPS would be incapable of providing the services our students require.

Tale of Five Budgets: Transparency, not troubling

NPS Superintendent Anna Nolin has for the last two years presented a “A Tale of Five Budget Models” ranging in size from “Cuts & Reductions” to a “Thrive Budget.” It details for our system and community exactly what are the consequences and rewards for various budget scenarios that include under-funding needs, as well as expanding our capabilities. Mayor Fuller refers to this as concerning, yet this presentation simply lays bare for the community what is possible with various funding scenarios. This is called transparency — something that is sorely lacking in City budget discussions and something the citizens of Newton and families and staff of NPS have been craving.

Readers of the Mayor’s most recent newsletter might assume that there may be an immediate move to a “Thrive Budget” requiring a step-function budget increase of 9%. I have never heard any officials advocate for that singular step-function change, but NPS does have a responsibility to inform its citizens about what it would take to achieve what many families ask for. While I maintain that the City can afford to provide NPS funding for a level services budget simply by more optimal management of City retiree obligation trusts, achieving the level of funding of Dr. Nolin’s “Thrive” budget would likely require a vote of the citizens to fund.

We need more sober discussions of the City and NPS budgets, rooted in the actual numbers. Mayor Fuller’s address Monday evening, in its gloom and doom but steady-as-a-rock telling, brought us no closer to that goal.

Chris Brezski is the Chair of the Newton School Committee. This commentary reflects his personal views and does not necessarily represent the views of the Newton School Committee.