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Finance committee approves $38.16 million FY27 operating budget, funds Acushnet schools
Summary
The Acushnet Finance Committee unanimously approved the town’s FY27 operating budget of $38,156,351 and the Acushnet Public Schools budget of $17,139,645 on June 10, 2026. Members said savings from a newly awarded trash contract and departmental cuts helped balance the budget.
The Acushnet Finance Committee voted unanimously June 10 to approve the town’s FY27 operating budget at $38,156,351 and the Acushnet Public Schools operating budget at $17,139,645.
Committee members said the result reflects a combination of cost‑saving measures, negotiated reductions and one identified contract savings that helped cover an increase of $450,000 for the schools. “We went through the budgets several times,” a committee member said, praising department cooperation that allowed more to be directed to the schools while keeping the overall town increase under 2 percent.
Why it matters: The vote finalizes the town’s recommended operating figures ahead of Town Meeting and the warrant. Committee members repeatedly emphasized that fixed costs — principally health insurance and pension contributions — accounted for the majority of the net increase across town accounts.
What the committee approved: The meeting record shows unanimous approvals across the remaining departmental budgets the committee had not already voted on, including accounting ($267,800), DPW Highway ($988,697), police (about $3.1 million), water ($2,122,46), fire and EMS ($133,963), library ($309,889), planning ($73,078), sewer ($831,444) and several enterprise funds. The committee also voted to reduce the reserve fund by $50,000 (from the historical $100,000 level) as part of the balancing work.
Key background and tradeoffs: Finance staff and committee members explained that insurance and pension line items together consumed the largest share of the increase (insurance around $157,000; pensions about $85,000 in the summary provided). Health insurance negotiations produced a final rate increase staff described as roughly 13–14 percent, with brokers arranging stop‑loss and reinsurance to reduce the initial higher estimates.
Collective bargaining items: The committee chair noted three collective‑bargaining articles will appear on the warrant but may be passed over at Town Meeting if contracts are not finalized; those items were placed in the warrant but will not be acted on by the Select Board until negotiations conclude.
Process notes: Members flagged a small discrepancy between different FY26 baseline figures shown on various documents for accounting and requested staff follow up to reconcile the prior‑year numbers. The committee approved the operating budget with the understanding that the presented revenue and balancing assumptions are correct.
Next steps: The committee scheduled a preliminary meeting at 6 p.m. on June 29 at Ford Middle School Library, one hour before Town Meeting, to address any remaining procedural items and to support the warrant presentation.
