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The FY27 budget

Updated September 22, 2026

What's happening

This thread is concluded. Somerville is operating 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, with Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott and At-large Councilor Kristen Strezo voting no: Scott because the budget raised police pay while cutting staff, Strezo because it left out six school positions the School Committee had voted to add (Cambridge | Somerville Independent).

The story

Mayor Jake Wilson inherited a $5.4 million shortfall built from a collapse in commercial new growth, from $17.7 million in FY24 to about $5 million, and a $2.8 million jump in health insurance (April 14 digest). He closed it with reserves, a 5 percent cut to non-personnel budgets, 16 vacancy eliminations and, announced on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, 13 layoffs that fell mostly on staff in the proposed Somerville Workers United unit (Independent). "We cut positions, not people" became the phrase everyone argued with.

The Finance Committee spent 17 hours over six nights and cut nothing; on June 23 it recommended the budget 8-1 and passed a stack of non-binding resolutions Scott likened to "wishes whispered to Santa while sitting in his lap at the mall" (June 23 digest). The Law Department's June 16 opinion that the mayor is not 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: having passed an austerity budget, the Council spent a bit over $12 million in free cash the same night, including $7.15 million to pay down street repair bonds and $1.6 million on the winter's snow deficit, out of about $23 million certified. Standard & Poor's reaffirmed the AAA rating June 1, with reserves at about 36 percent of revenues against a 30 percent target.

What's next

  • Fall 2026 — free cash certification and midyear appropriations, the first read on whether FY27 revenue is running ahead of the deliberately conservative forecast. Finance's post-recess docket is tracked on Before the boards.
  • Nov 1, 2026 — the charter-required capital investment plan is due.
  • Spring 2027 — FY28, which already carries about $446,000 a year in body-camera costs, the same six school positions and flat new growth. The tax-base story behind it is on the lab glut.