By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]
After talk of a “veiled threat” and the possibility of a future override, the Finance Committee voted 10-3 Thursday for a new spending guideline that recommends capping next year’s increase in municipal budgets at 2.79 percent.
While higher than the preliminary guideline of 2.44 percent, the 2.79 percent final figure is lower than the 3.05 percent guideline that would have resulted if FinCom adopted a set of limits that departments requested this week.
Within the overall guideline, FinCom seeks to limit the Concord Public Schools’ budget increase to 2.4 percent.
The FinCom set the Concord-Carlisle High School guideline at 3.48 percent and the town’s at 2.85 percent.
“We are still holding to the idea of trying to work together to drive those costs down,” FinCom member Paul Rodriguez said moments before the final vote.
Preliminary guideline
FinCom sets guidelines each year as recommendations for municipal budget increases.
As the now-finalized guidelines took shape, officials warned Concord’s spending has the town drifting close to the state-imposed limit on annual property tax increases. If the town reaches the limit, it will need to ask voters to approve an excess tax hike, known as an override.
When FinCom set its preliminary guidelines in November, several members described the figure as a “stake in the ground” to say it’s time to trim spending.
Departments reacted to the guidelines and delivered final feedback to the committee at Thursday’s meeting.
School concerns
K-8 School Committee chair Carrie Rankin said administrators could meet the preliminary guideline for the CCHS budget.
Rankin said the proposed 1.81 percent limit on CPS increases under the preliminary guideline would be more difficult and asked for a 2.7 percent increase.
While members were still considering sticking with the preliminary guideline Thursday night, Schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter told FinCom she would need to cut programming in order for CPS to meet the threshold.
“I’m going to have to bring that to the School Committee, and that’s going to become a public discussion,” she said.
After voters bucked FinCom recommendations to cut school spending at Town Meeting last May, FinCom member Don Kupka said Hunter’s comments felt like a “veiled threat.”
Hunter said that was not her intent: “I just know that the question that I’m going to be asked is, ‘If we went to guideline, what are going to not have?’” she said.
Middle school cuts
As part of its 2026 fiscal year budget process, CPS is working to meet a promised $500,000 reduction as the new Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School opens.
The new CMS lets Concord move away from its two-building middle school model, allowing officials to trim some costs. Among other things, Hunter said Thursday, “that’s going to result in layoffs.”
Hunter’s reference to layoffs came roughly two months after she said there will “probably be some reduction in force” at CMS “unless attrition naturally takes care of it.”
Asked to expand on her comments to the FinCom, Hunter told The Concord Bridge she’d “be sharing what I can” at a January 7 School Committee meeting.
Headcount debate
FinCom’s preliminary guideline for town budgets in November landed at 2.6 percent and sought a roughly $425,000 cut from early budget projections.
Town manager Kerry Lafleur countered, asking for a 3.25 percent increase. As FinCom mulled the question, the discussion touched on town staffing over the past decade.
“We acknowledge [headcount] has grown,” Lafleur said.
Lafleur continued, though, citing the town’s new sustainability director and a school resource officer position as examples of jobs Town Meeting approved outside the budget cycle.
Lafleur said Concord’s scattered municipal operations, which run out of 18 different buildings, also require costs in the form of utilities, extra supplies, and personnel that other communities with centralized operations don’t face.
Lafleur said there is hope for future cost-cutting with a new municipal footprint and new payroll software that will streamline operations.
“We definitely see a benefit to consolidation, and we hope that there will be some promising developments there,” Lafleur said. “But they’re not Fiscal [20]26.”
Middle ground
While many taxpayers bemoan rising rates, Kupka said, “I think we need to at least present to the town a path that shows how we can avoid [an override].”
“I know that it can’t be done with level services,” he said.
Many FinCom members initially said they were willing to hold firm on the preliminary guideline. As Thursday’s meeting stretched on, though, members reached a middle ground.
Peggy Briggs, John Garofalo, and Dee Ortner were the no votes.
FinCom chair Eric Dahlberg said he hopes to maintain lines of communication with town and school leaders to avoid a frosty relationship going into Town Meeting.
Rankin took the microphone after FinCom backed down from the preliminary guideline.
“This is something that we as a committee can get behind,” she said of the new mark. “And [we] would work really hard to get behind this amended number.”
