SomerWiki A source-grounded wiki about Somerville, Massachusetts

The FY27 budget

Updated October 27, 2026

What's happening

This thread is concluded. Somerville is running on a $394 million FY27 budget that took effect July 1, and getting there cost 13 people their jobs. The City Council passed the $376,778,493 general fund operating budget 9-2 on June 25. Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott voted no because the budget raised police pay while cutting staff. At-large Councilor Kristen Strezo voted no because it left out six school positions the School Committee had voted to add (Cambridge | Somerville Independent).

The squeeze isn't over. Presenting the capital plan on October 22, Mayor Jake Wilson warned councilors that the FY28 budget will face "those same constraints." Budget Director Michael Mastrobuoni summed up the forecast with a line from Mad Men, "Not great, Bob," and said the city has "a cash flow issue" rooted in fixed costs (Independent, Oct 26; The capital plan: fix it first, borrow last).

The story

Wilson inherited a $5.4 million shortfall. It came from a collapse in commercial new growth, from $17.7 million in FY24 to about $5 million, plus a $2.8 million jump in health insurance costs (April 14 digest). He closed it with reserves, a 5 percent cut to non-personnel budgets, 16 vacancy eliminations and 13 layoffs, announced on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. The layoffs fell mostly on staff in the proposed Somerville Workers United unit (Independent).

The Finance Committee spent 17 hours over six nights and cut nothing (June 23 digest). The Law Department's June 16 opinion that the mayor isn't bound by the School Committee's number ended the fight over the six school positions. The school budget came in at $122.5 million, up $8.6 million.

The paradox: the same night it passed an austerity budget, the Council spent a bit over $12 million of the roughly $23 million in certified free cash. That included $7.15 million to pay down street repair bonds. Free cash came out again on Oct 22. After a 40-minute closed session, the Council voted 9-1 to pay $2.5 million, at Wilson's request, to settle a 2021 race-discrimination suit by three former Public Works employees. One was Richard Nurse, the highway department's first Black foreman. Ward 1 Councilor Matt McLaughlin, the lone no, said Nurse deserved compensation but his two white co-plaintiffs did not (Independent, Oct 23). The new capital plan also leans on free cash: $7 million of this year's capital spending comes from city cash (The capital plan: fix it first, borrow last). S&P reaffirmed the AAA rating June 1, with reserves at about 36 percent of revenues.

What's next

  • Fall 2026: free cash certification and midyear appropriations; the FY27 tax classification hearing November 12 (Before the boards; The lab glut and the tax base).
  • Spring 2027: FY28, which Wilson says carries the same constraints. It already includes about $446,000 a year in body-camera costs, the same six school positions and flat new growth (The lab glut and the tax base), and the capital plan will compete for the same money.
  • This stub can be deleted at the end of the year.