Budget submission carries message of the power of hope
The town’s fiscal year2025 budget process is underway, with the Finance Committee (FinCom) having already begun its reviews of the proposed budgets of several departments, including police and fire.
The town manager is required to provide the FinCom with an executive budget by Jan. 31. At the Jan. 23 Select Board meeting, Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick and Dave Davison, deputy town manager/director of finance, walked the board through top-line items in what is proposed to be a $244.3 million budget, a 4.5% increase over FY24.
Fitzpatrick headlined her preamble to the document with a quote from the Swiss philosopher Henri Frederic Amiel: “Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.”
“There have been numerous times in our history when the future has felt uncertain,” she wrote. “In the three decades I have worked for the town, we have experienced economic downturns, the dotcom bust, housing crises, the Great Recession and a worldwide pandemic. For a majority of those years, our country was at war. The rights and safety of many residents feel tenuous, world events overshadow our daily lives, and the impact of climate change is becoming closer and more tangible.
“From a government financing perspective, we face great uncertainty in the coming year. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and other pandemic-related funding is ending. Growth in the commercial sector is slowing. State tax collections are dropping. And the impact of the 2024 presidential election is unknowable.
“But where there is uncertainty there is also hope. Not irrational hope or blind faith, but the “Stockwell version” — the faith that we will ultimately prevail is inextricably linked to the importance of confronting the brutal facts of our current reality.”
As for the more prosaic numbers, the town is projecting a 4.6% revenue increase over FY24. Property tax revenues are projected to account for 78%of the town’s revenue.
The top five departmental budgets are:
- Schools — $97.5 million
- Public Works — $21.9 million
- Fire — $11.9 million
- Police — $9.7 million
- Finance — $4.3 million
Town Election candidates as of 1.24.24
*Incumbent
SELECT BOARD (Two for three years)
- *Kevin Keane
- Josh Levy
- Tina Burgos
SCHOOL COMMITTEE (Two for three years)
- *Michael O’Brien
- *Liz Lee
PLANNING BOARD (One for five years)
- Justin McCullen
BOARD OF HEALTH (Two for three years)
- *Robert Partridge
- Aarti Sawant
PARK & RECREATION COMMISSION (Two for three years)
- *Chris Gerstel
- *Dina Hannigan
- Jennifer Meyerhardt
NEEDHAM HOUSING AUTHORITY (One for five years)
Jim Flanagan
ASSESSOR (One for three years)
Michael Diener
TRUSTEE OF MEMORIAL PARK (One for three years)
(Trustee of Soldiers’ Memorials – non-veteran)
Bill Dermody
TRUSTEE OF MEMORIAL PARK (One for three years)
(Trustee of Soldiers’ Memorials – non-veteran)
TRUSTEE OF NEEDHAM PUBLIC LIBRARY (Two for three years)
*Jay Fialkov
COMMISSIONER OF TRUST FUNDS (One for three years)
Julia Satti Cosentino
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