FY2027 Other Budget

Budget
Discussion of the FY2027 proposed Finance, Welfare, Clerks, Library, and other departments’ Budgets
Author

Sam Jacobson

Published

June 10, 2026

Modified

July 14, 2026

This is part of my review of the FY2027 Budget and is a catch all for various small departments that execute specific City functions. These typically do not drive large costs, but are key ways residents interact with the city.

City Clerk & Elections

  • Summary
    • Total budgeted cost Clerk: $266,165
    • Total budgeted cost Elections: $26,519
    • 3 full time employees
    • Largest YOY changes are wages (~$20k increase)

Questions

  • What is the reason for the wage increase? Cost of Living?
    • All members in the clerks office have been reclassified on the pay scale. The clerk/tax collector has been moved to a department head, and the deputy has been moved from the equivalent of a library paige to a level commensurate with her responsibilities.
  • What is the One4all config reduction from last year (~11k)?
    • This was a one time cost incurred as part of the elections. The ongoing cost is maintenance of the voting machines.

Finance & Assessing

  • Summary
    • Total Budgeted cost Finance: $395,342
      • 3 full time employees
      • $68k budgeted for audits, with 55k encumbered from previous year
    • Total Budgeted cost Assessing: $79,804
      • 1 full time employee last year, removed for this year.
      • Assessing contract is $64k

Questions

  • Audit backup says that audit total is $75k, but later on says a single audit is 5k. No audit money was spent this year, so there should be $55k (2025) + $50k (2026) + $68k (2027 proposed) = 173k in audit money set aside. I don’t understand why the rate went up.
  • Last year the finance office included money for a part time HR position (I believe it was 65k) that was not spent. The presented drop in Finance’s budget (20%), reflects that difference. Why was the HR position not filled?
  • Are the expenditures this year in line with the budget? I think they are ~20k over expected once you remove the unfilled HR position and adjust the adopted for the time of year (e.g. 3 quarters of expenditure).
  • Why are we reducing a full time assessor?

Welfare

  • Summary
    • Total Budgeted cost: $72,419
    • 1 Part time employee
    • Direct assistance Total: $50,000
      • Food vouchers: $2,000
      • Rent Vouchers: $40,000
      • Medication Vouchers: $1,500
      • Utilities Vouchers: $5,000
      • Misc: 1,500

Questions

  • The 2026 actuals across all direct assistance categories are lower than budgeted (~20k vs. 66.5k budget). CM reduced the direct assistance, 25% - should we be reducing even more to reflect our actual usage?
    • No. 

Information Technology (IT)

  • 18k for advanced cyber security
  • 24k for Security in event management

Planning and Zoning

  • Total expenses: $260,816
    • two employees

Economic Development

  • $5,000 for professional services

Questions

  • Why is there no budget for the TAP grant (Trestle view project)?
    • This is a grant that is essentially encumbered and supports the engineering and planning portions of the trestle bridge project.

Debt Service

  • overall decreases from last year
  • Why did we not pay for the scale last year?
    • No answer provided.

Other

  • Insurance is increased 15%.
    • This seems like a large increase, and may be related to adding the Proulx center flood insurance.