Easthampton Mayor Salem Derby
Reminder Publishing file photo
EASTHAMPTON — At the May 6 Easthampton City Council meeting, Mayor Salem Derby presented an overview of two proposed budgets for fiscal year 2027 — one for if a $6.9 million override passes on June 9 and one for if it does not.
He called both options “difficult.”
While both show increases from FY26’s budget of just under $62 million, the larger budget of $65.4 million demonstrates more level services and the $62.5 million budget would mean significant cuts to personnel and services. They mayor did not elaborate on exactly what those cuts would look like during his budget presentation.
The council voted to accept the budget presentation and move it to the Finance Committee, where it will be analyzed and discussed in great detail, and then brought back to the full council for full approval before the start of the fiscal year on July 1.
Derby called the coming year’s budget “the most consequential budget” he hopes to ever have to create, with an eye toward improvements in coming years. He noted that the budget can’t be fixed by ignoring the problems in it and he hopes that everyone stays engaged in the process and “asks the difficult questions.”
“We don’t have a lot of options,” said Derby. “It’s really going to be an all hands on deck effort.”
Derby also praised the department heads for their work in coming up with two budgets to share with his office — one that reflected what they needed and one that reflected significant cuts if the override fails.
The mayor described the $65.4 million budget as “lean,” but one that preserves much of the current levels of services and staffing. He described the $62.5 million option as a “severely cut budget” even though it appears as flat. However, due to rising costs, this budget would mean deep service reductions and would require moving $2.5 million from the general stabilization fund and would “not be sustainable beyond FY27.”
The Finance Committee will hold a series of public hearings on the budgets over the next several weeks broken up by the different department. The body encourages people to join and ask their questions.
In a prior interview with Reminder Publishing, Derby said that the budget deficit has been exacerbated because of inflation costs, significant increases in special education and transportation costs, along with health insurance. Derby added that the override and additional city funding would help prevent mass layoffs and disruptions in city services.
He also said that if the override passes, it would give Easthampton a little room to breathe so that they are not in the position of coming back with another override ask next year, allowing for the city to get through the near term without devastating cuts.
“Like I said, from my perspective, it’s about finding more revenue and leaving no stone unturned. It’s about cutting costs and trimming away things that we kind of don’t need,” Derby said. “I think it’s really important for us to shift our mindset. We’re not going with the status quo, we’re not gonna do things that’ve always been done. We’re gonna innovate, find new ways to bring more money in, find new ways to save money, and find ways to elevate Easthampton so we can become the city that everyone wants to live in, but also can live in.”
The City Council will vote on the final budget in June, after the June 9 override vote.
