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Council adopts FY26 budget policy guidelines and seeks tools to spur private affordable housing
Summary
The council adopted fiscal year 2026 budget policy guidelines and voted to refer several budget items for further committee review; it also asked the administration to analyze non-zoning property-tax exemptions the city could use to encourage private creation of affordable housing.
Watertown City Council adopted the fiscal year 2026 budget policy guidelines on Nov. 26 after the Budget and Fiscal Oversight Committee presented its recommendations and process for ranking councilor requests.
Councilor Emily Izzo read the committee’s report, explaining that the committee’s role is to synthesize councilor input into prioritized guidelines for the city manager, and that each councilor will return ranking sheets by Dec. 3. The council then moved and adopted the FY26 guidelines by roll call.
In related actions, the council voted to refer parts of the budget policy guidelines related to public works to the Public Works committee to be considered after the new DPW director is hired. The council also asked the administration to provide an analysis of non-zoning property-tax exemptions the city could adopt to incentivize private creation of affordable housing units.
The committee recommended and the council approved the referrals and requests by unanimous votes recorded on the Nov. 26 meeting minutes.
