Financial oversight committee reviews draft FY27 budget; schedules school presentation for April 27

The East Longmeadow Financial Oversight Committee met April 13 in a joint special town council session to review draft fiscal 2027 budgets and schedule follow-up meetings, the committee said.

The chair called the meeting to order at 3:33 p.m. and the committee approved minutes from the April 8 meeting by voice vote. Staff then walked the group through department-by-department budget lines and a list of proposed operational positions that could be added if revenues permit. "I'll open it up to committee members about questions," staff member Tom said as he introduced the follow-ups he circulated in advance.

Committee members pressed staff on several recurring items. On health‑insurance budgeting, staff described a practice of including a 3–6% cushion in the draft budget to blunt year‑to‑year spikes from Scantic Valley insurance changes. "Rather than reduce our budgets down to what they told us, we put a 3 to 6% cushion into the budget so that next year when we needed to set the budget for health insurance, it would only be a 6% increase versus a 12% increase to our actual budget," a staff presenter explained.

Members also discussed a recent town wage and classification study that produced one‑time adjustments and some permanent increases. Staff said many of those increases were anticipated and were budgeted for in the prior fiscal year. On classification adjustments and frequency, staff said such studies are typically done every seven to 10 years and that this year's one‑time costs were already accounted for in prior-year planning.

The committee reviewed several departmental budgets in sequence—accounting, human resources, legal services, information technology, DPW, public safety and others. On HR, staff described a new ongoing line for national background checks to cover hires who live outside Massachusetts. On IT, members asked for a breakdown of each software product and its annual cost; staff agreed to provide that list.

The committee agreed to invite the chair of the school committee and the superintendent to present at the April 27 meeting, with Pam Blair asked to bring the school financial detail. "We'll have them come in first," the chair said, setting the next meeting's first order of business.

Ending: The committee did not take final votes on the overall operating budget at the April 13 meeting; it approved the minutes and advanced approval of the town snow‑and‑ice budget line. The meeting adjourned after scheduling the next sessions to finish remaining budget items.