On Request of Council’s Finance Subcommittee, Spicer Administration Makes $1.2 Million in Budget Cuts in Proposed Budget

[broadstreet zone=”59982″]

FRAMINGHAM – For the past couple of weeks, the City Council’s finance subcommittee has been reviewing Mayor Yvonne Spicer’s proposed $307 million budget for fiscal year 2022.

The budget includes a 2.5% tax hike, the maximum allowed under law.

The majority of the finance subcommittee had recommended last week that at least $1.2 million in cuts are needed. Chief Financial Officer Mary Ellen Kelley said she would work over the weekend to reduce the budget by that amount.

This afternoon, May 24, she submitted an email to the 5-member finance subcommittee on the proposed cuts.

“The budget cuts listed below were determined thoughtfully by Department and Division Heads. The goal was to try and keep as much of the restoration of front facing services that was originally funded. The cost of supplies and materials are going up, and some, such as fuel, dramatically. This is being absorbed by the departments, as it was last year,” said Kelley.

[broadstreet zone=”59945″]

The finance subcommittee had specifically requested that the library budget and the council on aging budgets not be cut. The committee also requested that front facing services to the public not be cut.

“This is another cut to the department resources and the ability to provide services. The Library budget has not been reduced; it is right at the Municipal Appropriation Requirement (MAR) required by the state Board of Library Commissioners to be eligible for state aid and to participate in the Minuteman library exchange program,” said Kelley in the memo.

“The School Department funding is not changed, it is still a 2.5% increase of $3.6 million,” said Kelley.

[broadstreet zone=”59983″]