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Brentwood select board asks departments for itemized budget backup, sets level-funding as policy goal
Summary
The Select Board voted to require departments to provide itemized budget backups (employee-level wage detail and line-item justifications) and adopted a nonbinding goal of trying to level-fund the town operating budget as it moves into the 2026 budget hearings.
The Brentwood Select Board voted to require departments to provide detailed, line-item backup for their 2026 budget submissions and declared a nonbinding goal that the town’s operating budget be as close to level funding as possible.
At the meeting the board reviewed a proposed checklist of budget backup items circulated by the budget committee, including for each department: account name, employee name, position, employee group type, current salary or wage rate, recommended percent increase, hours per week for hourly employees, stipends, retirement eligibility and benefit eligibility. Jim Hajar, chair of the budget committee, summarized the items and told the board the format was intended to make departmental requests auditable and comparable across departments.
Select Board members and the budget committee argued the schedules would reduce surprise increases and speed review during hearings. The board moved and approved a motion to request that departments supply the specified employee-level information and line-item justification when they present budgets; several department heads had already submitted supporting spreadsheets, the board noted, but the requirement will be formalized going forward.
Separately, the Select Board unanimously agreed to adopt a policy-level goal of aiming for a level-funded operating budget for 2026 — described at the meeting as a goal rather than a binding limit — and invited department heads to “sharpen their pencils” and return with realistic, documented justifications for requested increases. The board discussed that some increases (fuel, electricity, newly created positions) may be unavoidable and said it expected department heads to present supporting documentation for larger line-item increases.
The board also handled a number of budget-line votes during the meeting: it approved the welfare budget as proposed (see Votes at a glance), tabled the conservation commission budget pending further breakdown and instructed staff to obtain missing actuals for 2024–25 reconciliations.
The motion requiring the backup documentation was framed as implementation of the budget committee’s request and is intended to be enforced before departmental budget presentations to the Select Board and the budget committee.
