At least one piece of Saugus’s fiscal year 2025 budget puzzle has become clear, with Superintendent of Schools Michael Hashem presenting his $34.3 million budget proposal last week. Now, the focus turns to Town Manager Scott Crabtree, who will present his FY25 budget to the Board of Selectmen next month.
It is unclear exactly how much Crabtree will seek in funding for the coming fiscal year, but the figure is almost certainly set to exceed the $110.6 million budget the town has been operating under fiscal year 2024. Crabtree’s budget proposal last winter recommended spending down the entire grand total available funds, calculated based primarily on tax revenues and state aid.
With property values rising in town, Saugus will collect more revenue in FY25 than in FY24, meaning more money will be available for the budget. But, with the twin costs of a third fire station and the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School building project approaching, Crabtree could opt to tighten the town’s purse strings.
One key question about Crabtree’s proposal is how much funding he will propose for the school department, which receives the largest allocation of any town department each year. Crabtree has historically recommended annual increases of about $500,000 to the school budget, a far cry from Hashem’s more than $2 million requested increase.
In FY24, Crabtree proposed a $30.7 million allocation before eventually matching the School Committee-approved budget figure at $31.6 million.
The School Committee has yet to vote on Hashem’s budget proposal. Still, even if members hold to the process they undertook for FY24, where they stripped former Superintendent Erin McMahon’s budget proposal down to only level service costs, the schools will once again be seeking a more than $1 million increase from the previous year.
Yet another variable is how the Finance Committee will act.
When selectmen approve a budget, which they are required to do on or before March 1, per the town charter, they transmit recommendations to the FinCom. That body then convenes weekly for hearings on the budgets for each town department, including the schools.
The FinCom is ultimately responsible for delivering the recommendation to Town Meeting on the budget, which becomes the motion on the floor. Those recommendations tend to carry tremendous weight with the 50-member legislative body that ultimately allocates all the money spent in town.
The town’s budget business is typically wrapped up during the Annual Town Meeting in May.
