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Select Board hears FY26 budget update; finance staff say department requests exceed Finance Committee guideline
Summary
Town finance staff reported that initial FY26 departmental requests exceed the Finance Committee guideline; the town is working to pare requests to a 2.85% guideline, addresses health insurance increases and Munis accounting conversion issues, and expects a draft free-cash estimate in February.
Town of Concord finance staff presented a detailed update on the FY26 operating budget on Feb. 3, telling the Select Board departmental requests currently exceed the Finance Committee’s 2.85% spending guideline and outlining next steps to reach the target.
Chief Financial Officer Anthony and staff walked the board through the finance committee’s final guideline — 2.85% overall, a dollar target of $33,678,889 — and said departmental preliminary requests totaled about $34.386 million, leaving an overage in the high six figures to be addressed through reductions or reclassifications. Anthony said staff were preparing specific reduction proposals and expected to present a guideline-balanced budget at the board’s next meeting.
Board members asked for additional detail. Finance staff said they will provide a department-level FTE comparison (FY24–FY26) and noted some apparent increases are transfers of positions between cost centers (for example, the economic vitality manager moved out of Planning and into the Town Manager’s budget). Finance staff said they were preparing a separate update on joint accounts (most notably health insurance) and would present a preliminary joint-account estimate next week.
On health insurance, staff noted recent industry information that the midpoint for health-insurance cost increases is roughly 14.8% for the coming year, higher than the 12% assumption used in some forecasts; staff said Concord should expect a material impact to joint accounts and will include updated estimates in the next budget packet.
Staff also briefed the board on the town’s Munis financial system conversion and the decision to engage CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) for reconciliation and a chart-of-accounts redesign. CLA representative Hannah York described the work plan: finish FY24 close in Munis, certify free cash, then redesign the chart of accounts to prevent recurring data issues. Staff said they expect to produce an estimated free-cash figure in February and to have the FY24 close and DOR reporting completed in the weeks that follow. The board heard that CLA work is budgeted within operating funds and that temporary outside expertise was needed because of staffing constraints and the complexity of the conversion.
Other budget-related items discussed included expected service impacts from reductions required to meet guidelines, the timeline for the manager’s final budget (end of February), and how the potential transfer of Peabody School property would affect operating and maintenance costs; staff said Peabody carrying costs would be addressed separately and suggested including an explicit maintenance estimate in any land-transfer article.
Next steps: staff will present proposed reductions to meet the Finance Committee guideline at the next Select Board meeting, provide a preliminary joint-account update (including health-insurance revisions), and deliver an estimated free-cash figure in February to inform town meeting planning.
