SWAMPSCOTT — As the Finance Committee continues its review of the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, members are beginning to talk about the big picture and the future forecast, raising questions about how current decisions will shape the town’s financial outlook in the years ahead.
While much of their Monday meeting focused on working through department budgets, the discussion frequently turned to the broader theme of balancing next year’s budget while keeping an eye on what comes after.
“It gets back to how much do you want to try to tax?” said committee member Cinder McNerney. “Because we’re going to have to dip in and use all of the unused levy capacity, and then what do you do next year? … it’s a question of how can we space that out over the years.”
A key part of that conversation is the town’s use of excess levy, a budget tool that has helped close recent budget gaps. But that figure is limited, and committee members questioned how much capacity remained.
Under Prop 2 ½, Massachusetts communities are limited in how much they can raise property taxes each year (unless voters approve an override). When a town does not tax all the way up to that limit, the remaining capacity, the excess levy, is basically an unused tax ceiling that can be tapped in a future year by raising taxes closer to that cap. But once that capacity is used it is gone, leaving less room to balance future budgets.
Swampscott has already relied on that excess, and Connors’ current budget draft proposes to do so for the second time in as many years. The current budget proposal includes about $1.7 million in excess levy to balance fiscal 2027.
“I’m looking at that number and saying, ‘okay, $1.7 still sounds like too much excess levy use to me,” said Finance Committee Chair Eric Hartmann, as the committee considered whether additional adjustments may be needed.
The committee continued its detailed review of the town budget going department by department, working as Hartmann suggested to find any free space to lighten the excess levy use. They discussed the police department budget, with what Connors described as firmer numbers based on a recently settled collective bargaining agreement.
Members of the committee asked how much of the increase in police spending was tied to contractual obligations like union-agreed wages and benefits, and whether there were areas where reductions could realistically be made. Connors said reductions had been made during talks with the police chief to overtime spending, but potentials for cuts are limited so long as the police department remains fully staffed.
The committee also reviewed budgets for the public library, education, public safety, and veterans’ services departments, comparing 2027 figures to prior years and anticipated needs. That line-by-line approach was exhaustive, but members said it is part of a broader effort to understand not just how much the town is spending, but why.
Those discussions are expected to feed into a larger financial picture, as town leaders prepare a multi-year forecast outlining projected revenues and expenses over the next several years.
That forecast has been requested by both the Finance Committee and the Select Board members, and is still being drafted by Town Administrator Nick Connors and Treasurer Patrick Luddy. The Finance Committee hopes it will provide a clearer sense of how current spending patterns carry forward, including the continued use of excess levy to close gaps.
“We’ve got huge budget gaps,” McNerney said. “We have to scrutinize what’s affordable at that point.”
Connors said Monday that the draft forecast is almost complete and ready to be shared, though he cautioned that without firm numbers, future spending is hard to predict.
“The further out we go, the fuzzier this is,” Connors said. “And the more it’s based on assumptions as opposed to any data.”
Even with that uncertainty, members said the goal of the forecast is to help define what the town can realistically sustain, and to guide decisions before more difficult choices are forced.
For now, the finance committee will continue to review the 2027 budget. They’ll begin meeting twice a week this Thursday in an effort to stay ahead of schedule and begin reviewing the capital plan as members continue to weigh what level of spending the town can support in the next fiscal year and those that follow.
