Finance Committee Recommended 1% Option for FY25:  

$73,454,128.00

This budget won't be able to provide even a level service budget, and important services would be affected, including the School Department, Fire and Police Departments, new Senior Center, and others.

This budget also required the use of $1.2 Million of "free cash" from our savings account and $1 Million dollars from our Ambulance Receipt accounts, both of which are intended to be used for non-recurring expenses like capital, etc.   Otherwise, the cuts would have been even greater.

Details on the 1% Budget

$73,454,128.00

vs.

FY 24 Budget $71,451,048.73

A $2.0M (2.80%) increase in the budget

After accounting for an 7.73% increase for Fixed and Shared Expenses and using $2.22M of funds from Free Cash, Ambulance, and Dog Fund, the General Government Budget and Norton Public School Budget would only be able to increase by 1%.  However, the requested budgets rose 7.8% and 12%, respectively, largely based on providing level services, as a result of increasing costs.    If we move ahead with this 1% budget, numerous eliminated services and positions in both the School Department and General Government would need to happen.

Notes:

State Aid for FY25 is estimated to be up only 0.5% over last year, so our local property taxes continue to grow as the main source of revenue for the town.

The increase in property tax receipts is a combination of 2.5% above last year plus new growth.   New growth has been declining in recent years and is estimated to reduce by 6.5% for FY25. 

In FY24, 5% of the town budget was funded by utilizing funds transferred from Stabilization, Free Cash, Ambulance, Overlay, and Dog Fund.   In FY25, the town is looking to only be able to fund 3% of the budget from these sources, $1.4M less.   

Sources:   FY25 - Budget Worksheet & FY25 Budget Memo from Town Manager &  Town Meeting Warrant