Newton City Council Approves FY27 Budget

NEWTON, MA — The City Council voted to approve the city’s operating budget for Fiscal Year 2027 during its most recent meeting Tuesday night.

The budget, first proposed by Mayor Marc Laredo in late April, totals $668,336,666. According to Councilor-at-Large Rebecca Walker Grossman, $578 million accounts for the general fund, $5,102,818 for the Community Preservation Fund, and more than $73 million across stormwater, sewer, and water enterprise funds.

“It also authorizes a number of revolving funds that are included in the council order and a number of grant and gift funds that are included in the council order,” Walker Grossman said during the meeting.

The City Council submitted six budget resolutions to Laredo, which he had the choice to either refuse or accept and alter the FY27 budget accordingly. Laredo approved the first resolution, in which the council asked to maintain a full-time Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator in Newton’s Health and Human Services Department.

“This will remain a full-time position and will benefit from the strong synergy created by being fully integrated within the department’s human services division,” Laredo said. “We believe this structure will strengthen collaboration, improve responsiveness, and further support the City’s ongoing commitment to accessibility, inclusion, and service to our residents.”

The remaining resolutions were not outright approved in the same fashion as the first, with Laredo providing nuanced responses that explain his decision. The other resolutions included adding staff manager to the Planning Department, reintroducing the rain barrel program at a reduced rate, finding a site for the city to house its electric school buses, and making bus fare significantly cheaper or free for all students.

As a reminder, all Kindergarten through sixth-grade students who reside more than two miles from their school do not pay the bus fee. NPS has a strong tradition of being extremely generous to any family facing financial hardships and accepting all financial waivers, and will continue to do so. The bus fee revenue derived is approximately 28 percent of the NPS direct yellow bus costs, and the $465 fee equates to $2.58 per day for transportation to and from school,” Laredo said about the fourth resolution. NPS transportation fees are in line with those of many other school districts.”

The sixth resolution, which was submitted for the first time Tuesday night, centered around the City Council acquiring its own legal counsel separate from the rest of the city. The council made the argument that in a situation in which it may be legally involved with another city entity, it would need separate representation.

“There are rules in the code of professional conduct for lawyers that prohibit them from engaging in two sides of the same issue or controversy,” Councilor Lisle Baker said. “You can’t represent two parties who are opposing each other in the same litigation or in a conflict of interest.”

The Council ultimately accepted Laredo’s response that the Law Department adequately represents the entire City and there should be no transfer of any funding to the Clerk’s Office for an independent attorney for the City Council.

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