The City Council voted in favor of the $152.5 million FY27 budget during its June 4 meeting. Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra warned during the meeting that an override is needed in FY28.
Photo credit: Northampton Open Media
NORTHAMPTON — With about a year to go before an override vote pierces Northampton, the City Council approved Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra’s $152.5 million budget for fiscal year 2027 during its June 4 meeting.
The acceptance of the budget, which constitutes a 4.6% increase over FY26 and a 6.7% increase over last year’s school budget, comes after the City Council held public hearings on May 27 and June 2 to hear from department heads and residents.
“The budget that you have before you is a solid and a balanced budget,” Sciarra said to the council before the vote on June 4. “In a time when cities big and small across the state and the country are struggling with inflation and the climate crisis, with an unstable and vindictive federal government and with the corrosive economic impacts of online retail and online entertainment, we are facing up to these challenges and we’re building a sustainable city that attracts new families and new visitors and supports the services that those who have very deep roots here also rely upon.”
According to Sciarra, “careful planning and prudent investing” dictated the FY27 budget process, but it also foreshadows the likelihood of an override in FY28. In her remarks, Sciarra shared that the city had to pull another $1.9 million from the Fiscal Stability Stabilization Fund reserve account to fill a deficit.
That total, according to Sciarra, adds to the $5 million used in reserves during the previous two fiscal years. Although an override vote is not a surprise, according to Sciarra, it’s something the city must think about right when the FY27 budget kicks in on July 1.
“As soon as this budget goes into effect, we all need to turn towards a community conversation about the override vote Northampton will need to support the fiscal year 2028 budget,” Sciarra said.
However, before those conversations can begin, the City Council first had to deal with FY27. Following long reflections of where the city currently stands financially, the City Council passed the FY27 budget by a 7-2 vote, with only Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Stratton and At Large Councilor Meg Robbins against it.
City Council President Rachel Maiore, who’s voted against a few budgets during her time on council, acknowledged the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the district’s struggles to meet special education needs. Despite that, she emphasized her support for a level services budget, which the mayor’s proposal provides, and therefore ultimately voted for it.
“I’m grateful that we were able to reach level services for our schools,” Maiore said. “And I appreciate the mayor’s efforts to do so early enough to avoid pink slips and additional uncertainty and stress for our students, families and staff.”
Ward 1 Councilor Gwen Nabad echoed Maiore’s appreciation for a level services budget and emphasized her commitment to helping the city maintain a balanced budget every year. She highlighted the eventual exit of Coca-Cola, the elimination of American Rescue Plan Act funds and a decrease in free cash over time as reasons to be as fiscally responsible as possible.
Nabad also emphasized the importance of voting for a balanced budget that prioritizes the city over personal values. “My choice to vote for this budget today is not a reflection of my own personal experiences or impacted by my own personal trauma or personal interests and is entirely based upon my observations of the needs of all city departments,” she said.
After thanking the city workers who dedicate their lives to Northampton every day, Robbins lamented the lack of time to “intensively go through” the city’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan and budget with the Finance Committee before making the vote. She also expressed concerns about the rising costs of the Picture Main Street project and said the city’s fiscal stabilization plan needs rethinking.
“We’ve received some excellent financial background for our attention to this budget, but not enough. We have heard from some department heads, but not all. We have for the first time been allowed to watch the presentations to the mayoral-picked advisory committee on capital planning, but oddly, not their prioritizing deliberations,” Robbins said. “Mayor Sciarra informs us tonight that this is the beginning of a community conversation. And while I applaud that, I query why that conversation has not been ongoing. We need to be very wary of operating a voting by ‘I think’ and not ‘we know.’”
Stratton, the other dissenting voter, keyed in on schools, arguing that the budget is level in “sustaining the consequences of previous deeply harmful cuts,” ostensibly referring to the reduction of 20 positions in Northampton Public Schools during FY25.
In her budget proposal, Sciarra said that those 20 reductions from FY25 were a result of an overreliance of nonrecurring revenue sources during the COVID-19 pandemic, but she said the district has regained some of those positions back.
For FY27, the School Committee recommended a base budget of $50.3 million, or a 15.3% increase over the FY26 budget. In her summary, Sciarra argues that this number is more than what the city can “responsibly and sustainably provide.”
She said such a budget would drain all reserves in two years and create an $8 million deficit.
Stratton, however, appeared dubious of the schools’ current situation.
“We are underserving our children, that’s a fact,” Stratton said. We’re going to be going to the people for an override. But before we do that, we need to justify that we’ve used the money they already pay in the most strategic way to meet their priorities and not only our own. Our stubborn split between how we spend on people versus capital projects does not do that.”
That tension of “projects versus people” is not something Ward 3 City Councilor Laurie Loisel said exists. Instead, she sees a pothole that needs to be fixed as an opportunity for families to walk their children to school.
“I don’t feel like we have to pit those things that our children need against the schools,” said Loisel, who lauded the city’s fiscal stability plan and added that she happily supports the budget.
Councilor Garrick Perry joined the six other councilors who voted yes on the budget and agreed with Loisel’s assessment that the budget is a “document of people.”
“All of these budgets primarily represent people who are working for our city,” Perry said. “And I’ve said a lot of times that our greatest strength is our people. And I think for me, what again stands out is that if we want to move forward, we have to do it together.”
Reminder Publishing will have more on the budget after the School Committee’s official vote on the $47 million school budget during its June 11 meeting. In the meantime, readers can visit thereminder.com for previous coverage or visit the budget page on the city’s website, northamptonma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/37095/Budget-FY2027-Final-Product-5_14_26.
