News Stories

2023 Town Budget Midpoint Update

The Ways and Means Committees have been busy as the Town of Burlington approaches the midway point of its fiscal 2023 budget building. The Ways and Mean Committee consists of 15 members appointed by the Town Moderator.

Burlington’s municipal budget process began in mid-February with the setting of guidelines by consensus of the town’s financial management team. Once the guidelines have been established town department heads submit budget requests to their supervisory authority (ie. Select Board, School Committee, Recreation Commission, Board of Health, etc.).

Once approved each board presents their budget to the appropriate Ways and Means subcommittee and in turn, that recommendation is presented to the full 15 member committee. After deliberations a final recommendation is made to Town Meeting, which has final approval on all financial matters. 

The latest Ways and Means meeting on Wednesday, March 30th saw budgets for the Police and Fire departments, Management Information Services (MIS), and the Board of Assessors. Discussion centered on issues like staffing levels, training, cyber security, commercial real estate values, advanced life support service, and transition in the Town Assessor position. The budget increases recommended by the Ways and Means Committee were:

Police Department  0.84%.

Fire Department      1.89%

Assessors                2.38%

MIS                         9.97%

The MIS department was above the 3.5% budget guidelines as the result of the addition of a part-time network technician, upgrades to two existing positions, and expiring contracts in networking and cyber security contracts. The committee expressed concern as to whether or not the town will need to devote additional resources to Management Information Services in the future.Â