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).…
Posts published in “Mayor”
Mayor Fuller has put together a summary of a financial program to help fill some of the Newton Public Schools (NPS) budget gaps and the Horace Mann project after the failure of the general override. The plan includes the following: Increase pensions via COLA: The plan, which the Retirement Board…
In a speech to Newton residents and the City Council on Monday evening (text, NewTV’s video), Mayor Ruthanne Fuller presented a proposed FY2024 budget of just over half-billion dollars, an increase of $19.7 million (+3.94%) over last year, aiming to balance the City budget in the face of the failure…
In 2022, City Council President Susan Albright had appointed a study group — including City Council Vice President Rick Lipof, Finance Committee Chair Becky Grossman, and Councilor Chris Markiewicz — to work with her and with Newton School Committee member Chris Brezski to develop a plan to adjust the rate…
The Newton Retirement Board convened a special meeting on Thursday, April 6 to discuss Mayor Fuller’s proposal that the Board’s Pension Trust payment schedule be completed by 2031-2032 rather than 2030, as originally planned. At the same time, the Mayor proposed that the City increase the base pay on which…
At its March 29th meeting, the Newton Retirement Board included two budget funding presentations: one from Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and the other from City Council Board President Susan Albright and Ward 2 School Committee member Chris Brezski. Both presentations were in response to the March 14th failed operational override. Mayor…
Residents and community leaders are looking for ways to fill the budget gap that the passage of Question 1 (Requesting an Operating Override) would have filled, and one avenue being explored is adjusting the rate of the City’s funding of its pension liability. The City’s long-term pension and retiree health…
Ty Gupta, owner and developer of the historic Gershom Hyde House at 29 Greenwood Road has filed suit this week in Middlesex County Court against the City of Newton as well as individual City staff members, Historic Commission members, and the Mayor over their handling of the project. The developer bought…
Mayor Ruthanne Fuller announced last week that the City will use $1.75 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for coaching services provided by Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath) to assist 50 under-resourced families that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. From three submissions for delivering these services, EMPath’s…
On Tuesday, the Charles River Regional Chamber hosted a one-hour online forum with Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and Interim Superintendent Kathleen Smith to discuss proposals for an operating override and two debt exclusions (see video). After a brief presentation by the Mayor and Interim Superintendent, Chamber president Greg Reibman moderated a…
Mayor Ruthanne Fuller held a two-hour online Town Hall Forum on January 26 to answer questions about the proposed tax override. A recording of the meeting has been posted here. On Sunday, February 5 at 2PM, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and Interim Superintendent Kathleen Smith will host a Tax Override Forum…
Twenty-five years ago, State Representative Kay Khan began her quest to upgrade the three commuter rail stations in her Newton district — Auburndale, West Newton and Newtonville — because none of them are accessible and none have both in-bound and out-bound platforms. In fact, trains stop less often in Newton…