Framingham FY27 Budget Hearing on Monday, April 27 at 6pm

One of the important city charter changes voted into effect by the community last November is the provision of an opportunity for the community to provide the mayor and City Council feedback before the annual budget is submitted by the Mayor to the City Council for its approval. The provision in the city charter is:

“ARTICLE VI: FINANCE AND FISCAL PROCEDURES

3. SUBMISSION OF BUDGET a) Public Hearing: The mayor shall hold a public hearing on the proposed operating budget before it is sent to the city council.”

This affords the community a new and long overdue means to convey to the Mayor and the City Council, its opinion on multiple issues.

The city has numerous problems. Here are a few:

1. Cuts in the Framingham Public Schools (FPS) FY27 budget, which exacerbate the problem of plummeting student achievement and continuing flight of experienced teachers from the school system.
2. The systemic problem of diversion of Chapter 70 state education funding away from low income, special needs and non-English speaking students, to solve cityside structural financial problems. Over the last 4 years, of $100 million in boosted Chapter 70 funding delivered to the city by the Student Opportunity Act, only $25 million reached disadvantaged students and most of that enhanced support will be cut in the proposed FY27 FPS budget which is designed to surrender to the Mayor’s continuing hammering of the school system.
3. The failure of the Mayor to follow the new city charter, which requires him to hire a Chief Climate and Sustainability Officer. Four months have passed with no action, which suggests that the Mayor is continuing on his path of negligence on key climate action, and ignoring strong community support for much more powerful environmental action.
4. Related to #3 is the inexplicable ongoing city fiscal incompetence, whereby easily achieved city utility savings, boosted in potential size by the federal Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, have been ignored. Millions of dollars are being lost each year by the paralysis of the Mayor and key members of the City Council on the simple issue of starting new solar installations on city building roofs and parking lots. The Mayor seemed to finally realize the benefits back in the spring of 2024, but then remained environmentally and fiscally inert: Framingham Mayor Delays on the Farley Solar Roof.
5. Current funding of the water & sewer system will run into problems in a year or two and utility bills will see a big jump, but there is no budget planning to address that problem.
6. The city has seen high turnover in its financial leadership with 4 Chief Financial Officers in 5 years, which has severely impact budget planning. However, the city just hired Brian Turbitt, from Nantucket, who seems to be a very capable professional, very well suited to address the growing set of financial problems facing Framingham. He appears an especially good choice to move Framingham onto a sound fiscal trajectory, where strategic planning drives the budget, and best financial practices are followed. It will be very interesting to see how his views influence the FY27 budget process.

I hope that many opinions are delivered by the community at the Monday budget hearing. Please turn up in person or on Zoom to make your voice heard, plus encourage your friends and neighbors to do likewise.

The budget hearing information is as follows, from the city website:

FRAMINGHAM – The City of Framingham is announcing that Mayor Charlie Sisitsky has rescheduled his public hearing on the Fiscal Year 2027 budget, which begins on July 1, 2026.

The public hearing will now take place on Monday, April 27, 2026, at 6 p.m. in the Blumer Room at the Memorial Building.

Residents are encouraged to attend and participate in the budget process by sharing their input and feedback.

The Mayor is required to submit his proposed FY2027 budget to the City Council by May 1, 2026. This revised deadline follows the City Council’s approval of an emergency order extending the original submission date.

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