Framingham Mayor Presents $296 Million City Budget

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Mayor Yvonne Spicer finalized her draft of the Fiscal Year 2020 budget for Framingham and sent it to the City Council for review on Thursday. The proposed FY20 budget comes in at $296,404,258 million, which is an increase of $11.6 million or four percent over the FY19 budget. The proposed budget would increase taxes by $159.

More than half of the proposed General fund budget goes to the school department including benefits and retirement costs for non-teachers, school debt service and state assessments. The City is proposing a school department budget of $137,873,104 – a 3.65 percent increase or $4.86 million over FY19. This is higher than the mayor's original proposal to the School Committee of $137.1 million. The School Committee originally proposed a $139.1 million budget that many said, still did not completely fund the need of the district.

In response to the mayor's proposed budget, School Committee Chair Adam Freudberg said, "I’d love much more funding for education as the committee hoped for 4.57 percent to make progress in many areas, but I do understand that there are many competing needs. This amount if adopted by the City Council allows us to accomplish several key goals and sets our school district up for continued success for our students and staff to benefit."

Freudberg said he expects any additional state funding to go to the schools,"I will continue to advocate for the state funding to go directly towards our schools and make up for as much of the fiscal year 2020 gap as possible," he said, "The number isn’t as high as our vote, yet I do believe there will be opportunities during the upcoming budget process to utilize state or other funds to achieve our goals and get as close to our budget request as possible."

Under Spicer's proposed budget the equivalent of 3.6 full time positions will be eliminated and five new ones will be added, including the mayor's long-sought diversity chief. The mayor tried to add the position into last years budget but was blocked by the City Council. "The role of Director for Diversity and Inclusion will lead on issues of equitable practices throughout the City of Framingham, providing cohesiveness and serving as a channel for all divisions and a resource for the school department to prioritize inclusivity and diversity," the mayor’s budget message reads.

Under the proposed budget municipal costs will increase by 2.2 percent and the cost of recycling will double.

Read the full budget book here.