Talk of service cuts abounds as FinCom adopts budget guidelines
Leaders have floated everything from reducing overnight fire department staffing to nixing town public relations contracts.
Town and school leaders brought budgets to the Finance Committee that they said would maintain services for the 2027 fiscal year.
FinCom urged additional cuts, and board and committee members have floated everything from reducing overnight fire department staffing to nixing town public relations contracts.
FinCom’s Eric Dahlberg said the panel should challenge budget writers to save taxpayers’ money.
Town Manager Kerry Lafleur previously warned the Select Board about the proposed spending cap. “We can’t continue providing the same level of service if we’re being given a guideline that’s below inflation,” she said.
New projections
FinCom sets guidelines as recommendations for budget increases. This fall, the panel picked preliminary thresholds of 2.5% for the town and K-8 school districts.
Acton-Carlisle High School administrators expected Acton’s share of the budget would fall 0.9%, and FinCom set its guideline to match.
As of FinCom’s December 11 meeting, Lafleur and Assistant Chief Financial Officer Ryan Ferrara had trimmed the town’s budget to a 2.95% increase. Among the changes, staff walked back a proposal to close the Acton Free Public Library on Sundays.
School administrators held the K-8 budget to 2.94%. The latest topline estimate for CCHS was -0.79%.
To get to 2.5%, Lafleur told the Select Board, “We would be looking at service-level reductions.”
The K-8 and regional districts are already facing layoffs amid falling enrollments. Hunter told FinCom this will be the “most significant” staffing reduction in her tenure so far.
Firefighter staffing
While others backed the town’s 2.95% plan, Select Board member Cameron McKennitt flagged metrics showing that Acton has more firefighters per capita than any of six nearby towns.
He said he’s “not an expert,” but asked, “At 2 in the morning on a Tuesday, do we need this level of staffing?”
Select Board Chair Mark Howell said talking about short-staffing public safety departments is “playing with fire.”
FinCom’s Don Kupka mentioned police and fire contracts with John Guilfoil Public Relations — the same firm the schools recently hired.
Compared with the now-withdrawn library plan, he said cutting those PR deals would be “lower impact.”
The library closure would save roughly $44,000. Lafleur didn’t have estimates for fiscal ’27 but told The Bridge that the town is spending $15,588 on JGPR in the current fiscal year.
Several votes
Wasoff backed one proposal to roughly split the difference between new budget requests and the preliminary guideline with a 2.75% mark for the town and K-8 schools.
The schools have bucked FinCom in the past. By contrast, Wasoff said, “The town basically will suck up whatever we do,” and deep cuts could hurt planning for things like MCI-Acton redevelopment.
Dahlberg argued for a lower threshold, citing “outrage” over tax bills.
The vote deadlocked, and Wasoff huddled with Dahlberg for a brief, whispered conversation.
FinCom ultimately acquiesced to the high school’s request for a -0.79% threshold and backed a compromise — of sorts — for the other budgets. The K-8 final guideline is the 2.75% increase. FinCom kept the 2.5% ceiling for the town.
Why a higher rate for the schools?
Panelist John Garofalo said he was considering “what they can reasonably achieve without coming to the town and telling us they’re going to cancel all the music classes.”
Wasoff, when asked why she supported a 2.5% town guideline after warning against it, said it’s “important that the budgeting entities see the Finance Committee as united.”
$23 in average savings
The town must slash another $151,555 to meet FinCom’s final guideline. The K-8 schools will have to cut $90,501.
According to Ferrara’s calculation, the average household will save roughly $23 if the town reduces its budget increase from 2.95% to 2.5%.
Voters get the final say on budgets at Town Meeting, and some spending falls outside the guidelines.
In a statement via a spokesperson, Hunter said, “We value the efforts of the Finance Committee as well as our collaboration with them.”
Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Barrett told The Bridge, “We’ll just have to roll up our sleeves and see what we can do.”
