March 27, 2025 By Carol Britton Meyer
Town Administrator Tom Mayo presented his updated fiscal 2026 municipal budget recommendations to the select board this week, totaling $165.8 million — including $70.4 million for the schools. The education portion comprises 42.5% of the overall budget.
Fiscal 2026 budget parameters relate to revenue and expenditure limitations “and living within the parameters of the fiscal 24-28 Financial Management Plan (memorandum of understanding) agreed to by the select board, school committee, and advisory committee in March 2023,” Mayo explained. The MOU includes a 3.5% cap for both the school and municipal budgets.
Mayo noted that self-supporting departments (water, sewer, and South Shore Country Club and shared services (employee benefits, debt service, capital outlay, and property/liability insurance) are not subject to the 3.5% cap.
The 3.5% cap for the fiscal 2026 municipal budget totals $37,205,344 million, while total departmental level services requests amounted to $38,016,166, resulting in a $810,822 shortfall. (See related budget adjustments charts.)
“The reduction of this amount results in a less than ‘level services’ budget for fiscal 2026,” Mayo explained.
A level services budget delivers in the upcoming fiscal year exactly the same services that were delivered the previous year.
