Fitchburg council rejects mayor’s FY2027 operating budget 8-1, delays remaining spending orders

FITCHBURG, Mass. — The City of Fitchburg’s Council as a Whole voted Tuesday night to reject Mayor Samantha Squailia’s proposed Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget, carrying a motion to do so by an 8-1 roll-call vote, and then unanimously agreed to hold a slate of remaining spending orders until the budget’s outstanding issues are resolved.

Council President Anthony M. Zarrella led the meeting and framed the vote as a response to an unanticipated surge in health insurance costs that, he said, produced a structural budget deficit. “We need to see a budget that makes some hard choices,” Zarrella said, adding the city needs “some shrinkage of the budget” to reduce reliance on one-time free cash appropriations and preserve funds for capital and infrastructure needs.

The vote to reject the Mayor’s Fiscal Year 2027 Operating Budget (Order 064-26) was recorded as eight in favor and one opposed; Councilor Joseph S. Bowen Jr. cast the lone opposing vote. The transcript notes the action included the procedural rejection of each line item consistent with direction from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. The meeting record does not specify who moved or seconded the motion to reject the budget.

Earlier in the meeting, Councilor Bowen moved to postpone the session, saying he had received about 10 emails from department heads who reported receiving little notice and insufficient time to analyze roughly 120 proposed budget cuts; that postponement motion received no second and failed. Vice President Derrick J. Cruz and Councilor Elizabeth R. Walsh both told colleagues they favored rejecting the budget as presented.

After the rejection, the Council took a recess and—by unanimous consent, 9-0—agreed to hold agenda items 065-26 through 077-26 until the broader budget issues are resolved. Those items include several appropriation orders intended to reduce the tax rate and fund enterprise operations and programs: 065-26 would apply $700,000 from overlay surplus to reduce the tax rate; 066-26 would use $250,000 from the stabilization fund for the same purpose; 070-26 lists $3,776,232 from available funds; and 071-26 proposes $410,000 from ARPA available funds. The Council also reviewed enterprise fund budgets, including a $9,997,019 Water Enterprise appropriation (Order 072-26) and an $18,316,809 Wastewater Enterprise appropriation (Order 073-26), each with line-item breakdowns for personal services, expenses, indirect costs, debt service and capital.

The meeting record shows that Councilor Amy Green joined the meeting after it began. Public comment included a resident, Jacquelyn Wehtje, who urged the Council to make the Conservation Agent position full-time rather than three-quarter time and expressed support for a proposed cut to the Building Commissioner’s salary.

The Council did not adopt the named appropriations at the meeting; instead, the items were held pending further work to resolve the city’s budget gap. The meeting adjourned at 6:40 p.m.; the record was filed by City Clerk Joanna Bilotta.

What happens next: The Council’s action leaves the Mayor’s proposed FY2027 operating budget formally rejected by the Council as a Whole, and the held appropriation orders will remain pending until the administration and Council reconcile the outstanding funding and structural issues.