In the coming weeks, Town Meeting will be asked to consider the town’s $171.7 million operating budget, representing a $2.1 million, or 1.3%, increase over the current fiscal year budget.
That $171.7 million funds schools, the municipal department, and shared services, among others.
The recommended amount for the municipal department was $35.1 million.
According to Town Administrator Patrice Garvin, two of the major cost drivers include a 10.5% increase to the Facilities Department to accommodate the addition of two new municipal buildings returning to operation—the new Belmont Public Library and the Belmont Sports Complex—and health insurance costs that have “gone through the roof.”
According to Garvin, the Multi-Year Budget Advisory Committee recommended a 3% increase to the municipal department budget for the current fiscal year (which does not include the School Department). With the inclusion of the new ice rink and library in the Facilities Department budget—which is shared between the school and municipal budgets—the overall increase for municipal departments came closer to 2.7% for fiscal year 2026.
Still, the 2.7% increase for fiscal year 2027 represents a larger increase than in past years, which typically hovered at 2.5%, according to Garvin’s budget memo.
“[The municipal department budget] was increased a little more than past years because we’re so bare bones on the town side,” she said.
Within the municipal budget, some departments received more than their requested amounts, such as the Information Technology Department, which sought a 3% increase but has been recommended to get a 6.8% increase, according to Garvin.
“I have been very clear IT is somewhere the town needs to invest after not investing for so long,” Garvin said. “IT touches every part of the town—finances, public safety, you name it. For too long the town didn’t fund it.”
At 15.7%, the town clerk’s office was recommended for the most significant increase among the municipal departments. This was done through eliminating the overtime budget and increasing the budget for election workers and other election-related expenses, such as police detail, Garvin explained.
Community Services, which was reorganized almost two years ago to include recreation, the Council on Aging, and Veterans Affairs, was recommended for a 7.3% increase; Planning and Building, a 4.5% increase; the Health Department, a 4.6% increase; Department of Public Works, a 3.5% increase.
“[DPW] asked for 3% and they [were recommended] 3.5%,” she said. “We have invested a considerable amount of money into the maintenance of town fields. We hired a contractor. So the next part of that plan was to hire a field manager.”
Within that same department, she said, the new budget aims to “right-size” the lawn and leaf pickup, which far exceeds the number of pickups in neighboring communities.
“That’s just to right-size it,” Garvin said. “We’re a community that’s providing more of a service without the funds to do so.”
She said the town needs to invest more in public safety. The Police Department was recommended to receive a 0.7% increase over the current fiscal year, and the Fire Department, a 1.1% increase.
“A serious amount [of investment] needs to go into public safety,” she said. “I’m working on a plan to hopefully bring that forward hopefully in the next couple years. … They are low on the compensation. The [Advanced Life Support] stipend is not comparable to other communities.”
The pilot paramedic training program, approved by Town Meeting in May, is a start, she said, as is the addition of a new position in the department.
Garvin explained that, in addition to compensation and rising costs across the board, changing interest rates and economic uncertainty, health care costs continue to be a major cost driver.
“Even if we weren’t going to the [Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission], our claims have gone through the roof in the last two years,” she said. “We budget health rates a year and a half in advance. Generally, we’ve been on target until last year when we saw a spike in the GLP-1s and claims went through the roof.”
In late March, the Select Board voted to enable the town to begin the process of switching from its self-insured health insurance to join the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission (GIC), which provides and administers high-quality, affordable health insurance and other benefits to the state’s employees and retirees, according to mass.gov. Presently, Belmont is self-insured, and while it offers its employees and retirees Harvard Pilgrim Health Insurance plans, the town is responsible for paying claims. The town’s Health Insurance Trust Fund helps cover the year-to-year cost fluctuations.
For the first six months of the year, the town will use its own health care rates, which will increase by 24% on July 1. On Jan. 1, pending successful enrollment in the GIC, the town will switch to the GIC rates, which have already been estimated and are expected to result in some cost savings to the town.
“Health insurance is definitely a budget driver and it’s going to be as long as it continues to be a national issue,” Garvin said.
