Belmont Projects $5.84 Million Deficit by FY29 as Budget Season Opens

BELMONT -- October 9, 2025, Belmont opens FY27 budget season projecting a $5.84 million structural deficit by fiscal year 2029. Town Administrator Patrice Garvin and Multi-Year Budget Advisory Committee Chair Tom Caputo presented a joint forecast Thursday showing operating revenue growing at roughly 3 percent annually against expenses trending at 4 to 4.5 percent, with the town's $4.6 million override mitigation fund, established after the April 2024 override of $8.4 million, fully exhausted by FY28 under the plan. FY27 base assumptions call for school budget growth of 5.3 percent to $74.3 million and municipal growth of 3 percent to $35 million, with health insurance pegged at 9 percent pending six months of claims review. School Committee member Meg Moriarty pressed whether the 5.3 percent figure was a directive or a starting point, with Select Board Chair Matt Taylor indicating Budget Summit 2 on November 30 is the expected point for locking in numbers. Select Board member Elizabeth Eon warned that the town has cut services to the point where further reductions would mean "closing a library or shutting a fire station," and tied the Belmont Center overlay district and Brighton Street corridor development to the town's ability to grow commercial tax revenue before the next override, projected at 7 to 9 percent and targeting the April 2028 ballot.