As FY27 Budget Process Begins, Pressures Surface

Report on the Meeting of the Budget Coordinating Group, December 3, 2025

By Maura Keene

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.

Representatives from the Town Council, the Finance Department, the Elementary School Committee, the Regional School Committee, the Jones Library, and the Town Manager met as the Budget Coordinating Group (BCG) for the second time in the FY2027 budgeting season on December 3.

The group was presented with financial guidelines developed by the Finance Committee, which allocated a 3.5% increase for each of the four budget divisions (elementary schools, regional schools, municipal departments, and Jones Library). In addition, the document recommends a multiyear plan to improve staffing in the Fire/EMS Department, including an additional position for FY2027. Also, the guidelines recommend that any excess revenue be used for possible changes in the elementary school needs resulting from consolidating the three schools into two and establishing a sixth-grade academy at the Middle School and the replenishment of the Special Education Stabilization fund if any of the $240,000 currently in the fund is used. Ten percent of anticipated revenue is slated for capital expenses, and any excess for road and sidewalk repairs. The guidelines did not recommend a Proposition 2-1/2 override.

The Finance Committee recommended that the Town Manager have an update of the needs of the four budget divisions and what would be needed to fill vacant positions. By February, the Governor’s budget will be passed and the town will have a better idea of how much state aid is coming, and there should also be an estimate of how much insurance premiums will increase.

Town Manager Paul Bockelman bristled at the recommendation, saying, “I think that’s a gigantic ask [to come back with all of that data by February], and I can’t guarantee that we will meet it. It requires all four entities to do this immense amount of work. And we may not have our health insurance cost.”

Town Council President Lynn Griesemer, who was chairing the meeting, noted that BCG is advisory to the Town Manager. It is not a voting body, but operates by consensus. It can accept the Finance Committee’s guidelines or develop its own.

Updates from the Finance Director
Finance Director Sean Mangano said that the town is closing out the books on FY2025 and is hoping to have the free cash certified by the end of January. He said that there is about $10.8 million unspent from 2025, but $4 million of that is ARPA funding that was applied to health insurance payments and reimbursed. About $2.8 million of that is being used to bring the Bangs Center up to code. There was also $2 million in interest payments earned last year, which is expected to be lower in coming years. Also, local receipts came in $500,000 over budget. He estimated free cash to be about $4 million.

Mangano said that interest from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners’ grant for the Jones Library project is not included in these figures. That money can only be spent on the library.

Library Hints at Need to Rethink Personnel Expenses
Griesemer asked each functional area to highlight the budgetary issues it sees as most pressing.
Library Director Sharon Sharry stated that 75% of the library’s budget comes from the town, so the town’s contribution is very important. She added that the library has been trying to limit its annual draw rate on its endowment to 4% to meet expenses not covered by the town or the state and said “The endowment has to last forever.”

Trustees President Austin Sarat said he has suggested looking at the way in which the library receives funds from the town—the way personnel expenses for the library are funded. He said that “the library has long-term personnel needs, with several positions having been unfilled for a while. He then noted that the Trustees now have a “commitment to the town with respect to the building project, which, depending on what happens with fundraising, may require us to use funds from the endowment, which will make the endowment less available for operating expenses.”

Elementary Schools Emphasize Legally Mandated Services
Amherst School Committee (ASC) member Deb Leonard noted the differing budget constraints for different departments. “The schools don’t have an endowment,” she said, “And we don’t generally have [unspent funds], unless we have unexpected interest income. Our positions that we freeze cannot be ones that are mandated coverage for services. If we don’t provide certain services, we are in violation of state and federal laws… We have contracts that have maximum class sizes. I would like those issues to remain relevant and discussed.”

Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke pointed out that the Special Education Stabilization fund created nine years ago, has never been used. Mangano said that the state’s circuit breaker program (the Commonwealth Special Education Reimbursement Program) only reimburses the district for some of the cost of specialized services, so it is difficult to budget according to student needs because students can move in and out of the district, and the expense can vary as to whether the program needed already exists or has to be created.

ASC member Irv Rhodes stated, “We are not going to be able to deal with a 3.5% increase.” He hoped the town can avoid the “different factions coming at each other [regarding the budget] with knives out for each other.” He hoped there could be some process to avoid this conflict.

Griesemer said that she hoped the data presented at the Four Towns Meeting would reveal some areas to discuss.

Rhodes replied, “The school budget contains unfunded mandates. When a child enters a classroom, we have to deal with that child as they are and what their needs are. We do not have any wiggle room. Those needs vary over time and population of students.  And those needs will project a budget way beyond that which has been indicated by the financial indicators or the manager’s budget. The thing that’s in the minds of constituents is that ‘Hey, these are our kids. Take care of our kids.’ Hopefully, if the towns and the schools can work together, this kind of inevitable confrontation can be avoided.”

Town Wants to Restore Positions
Bockelman said he would like to restore the five positions frozen this past year: one in the Fire Department, one in the Police Department, one in Finance, and two CRESS responders. He wants to “right-size” the expense budgets instead of relying on vacant positions to meet them. He cited the challenges of increased expenses, meeting collective bargaining agreements, and being competitive in hiring.

He also wanted to fund an additional firefighter/EMS and develop a plan for road maintenance and repair. “It’s going to be our job to come up with a budget that meets the financial goals of our town that we can afford.”

Citing the vacant positions, Mangano added, “We also have this ongoing deficit in operating that is kind of hidden, because we’re just not giving our departments everything they need to function fully.”

Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier noted that “there is a great demand in our community for new programs and new services, so I think that’s something that is less for other groups to do anything with, but you’re going to have to expect the council to be saying no to a lot of these new things that our community speaks very strongly to us for. I think that the expectation for a long time has been that Amherst will meet the needs of every member of our community. We’re always striving for that, but we’re at a point where some of these requests are just not feasible.”

Andy Steinberg agreed, “I tried to say to candidates [running for Town Council] that you need to be clear about how you’re going to fund things if you make promises in you campaign. I think it’s going to be a learning proposition for our new councilors. They’re going to get some hard reality thrown at them.”

No consensus was reached at this meeting. BCG will meet again on December 18 and will discuss preliminary budgets for the regional and elementary schools.