AMHERST — A $107.1 million fiscal year 2027 spending plan for Amherst will bring on two new firefighter-EMTs and two new water and wastewater treatment plant operators, but falls short of the Amherst School Committee-requested elementary school budget.
In a presentation to the Town Council Monday, Town Manager Paul Bockelman explained that the budget proposal creates a multi-year plan to increase the Fire Department from 45 to 47 members, and to immediately enhance the Department of Public Works through wage increases and improved staffing.
“The budget is built on the solid foundation of fiscal integrity that has been the hallmark of the town’s finances for decades,” Bockelman said.
Bockelman said the budget, which doesn’t require a Proposition 2½ tax-cap override, comes in the face of higher energy and insurance costs, but responds to the Town Council’s policy guidelines and performance goals, and promotes education, equity and sustainability.
“Our focus is really to be able to provide services the townspeople want, the Town Council has established, within the budget framework we have,” Bockelman said.
Yet even while the overall spending includes 5.1% increase in the elementary school budget, about $339,000 above the 3.85% guidance set by the Town Council, it doesn’t meet the $29.98 million voted by the School Committee. The $29.48 million embedded in the proposal is $1.43 million over this year’s $28.05 million budget, but about $500,000 less than what the School Committee has asked for.
Finance Director Sean Mangano explained that the town manager’s proposal is done through moving $69,371 from the regional school assessment, which came in below Town Council guidance, and $269,704 added from free cash to the base last year.
Bockelman said that this proposal is above what Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman and Shannon Bernahccia, the finance chief for the schools, had prepared working with school building leaders. Their proposal, he said, had met council guidelines.
“This work was not easy, but they worked at it collaboratively with the professional educators in the school district,” Bockelman said. “They are the ones who are closest to the school operations — and I trust their work.”
Mangano said the elementary school budget should have savings reflected in going from three buildings to two buildings when the new Amethyst Brook opens and both Wildwood and Fort River closes. Bockelman said that when the new school was first proposed, it was estimated the schools, and town, would save about $1 million.
The $20.43 million assessment for the regional schools was up 3.5%, or $690,773 over this year’s $19.74 million assessment.
The $200,000 to cover fire and EMT staffing will come from the ambulance fund, which means there is no pressure on the operating budget. The town is able to do this by increasing the billing rates for ambulance runs, bringing this fee more in line with area communities.
“Charging more for the rise is justified based on the amount of resources put into transporting people,” Bockelman said.
This is the first year of a multi-year plan for increasing staffing, with three firefighters to be hired in fiscal year 2028 and two more in fiscal year 2029. By then, with 52 full-time members, the town will be able to fully staff three ambulances and one fire truck at all times.
Even with the budget balanced, the biggest struggle remains expenses outpacing revenues, which has accelerated, Mangano said. “The gap is not closing year after year,” Mangano said.
The new growth trend could be a worry. For fiscal year 2024, it was $1 million, and then $1.2 million the following year, but fell to under $400,000 in fiscal year 2026 and missed projections. “One year on its own is a blip, if it happens again I think that’s a concerning trend,” Mangano said.
The loss of the Olympia Drive building under construction next to Olympia Place, which also burned down last November, prompted town finance officials to reconsider the new growth estimates.
Other aspects of the budget, Mangano said, are solidifying programs, adding more operating budget money to the aquatics director salary, which is mostly funded through a swim revolving fund and the Morning Movement and Mentoring Program, which had been covered by savings, and is now its own line item.
Capital spending is at $10.3 million and returning to 10.5% of the overall budget, after being reduced to 10.25% this year. This includes $200,000 that can be used for planning for the future of both the Hampshire College campus and the Wildwood School grounds.
Also in the capital plan is a five-year investment in roads, with $5.32 million in fiscal year 2027 and $5 million in each of the next four years. The hope is to spend $25 million on roads over the next five years and buy a second hot box so that potholes can be more rapidly filled.
The budget comes with proposals to increase the water and sewer rates, with an average homeowner to pay about $60 more annually, if they are enacted.
Under the plan, water rates would go up from $6.45 per 100 cubic feet to $6.75 per 100 cubic feet, a 4.65% increase, and sewer rates would go up from $6.95 per 100 cubic feet to $7.30 per 100 cubic feet, a 5.04% increase.
The average Amherst homeowner water bill is projected to increase from $605 to $633 and the average Amherst homeowner sewer bill is projected to increase from $639 to $671.
Mangano said this reflects the closure of Hampshire College, with an upward pressure on rates from this loss of users, and capital needs, such as a new roof on the Atkins water treatment plant.
The town is also considering whether to adjust fees for building permits as a way to generate more revenue.
For instance for a hypothetical building that is 100,169 square feet and costs $26.9 million, Amherst would collect a $35,609 fee. But in Hadley and South Hadley, that same building would bring in $268,950 in fees.
“We think tying it to cost like these other communities makes sense,” Mangano said. “It could generate significant new revenues.”
Bockelman said officials should soon advocate for the proposed Massachusetts Senate budget, which is more favorable to cities and towns than the budgets proposed by the House or Gov. Maura Healey.
Bockelman said as he and others are “hypersensitive” to the town’s high property taxes, there is a time to celebrate achievements, with the new elementary school to open for the fall semester, the expanded and renovated Jones Library to open in spring 2027, a new high school track and field already getting use and a Portland Loo downtown bathroom coming by summer.
“We’re doing a lot in the town, and if you look around there’s only a handful of people who are making all this happen,” Bockelman said. “Give credit to our town employees for pulling all these things together.”
A public hearing on the budget before the town’s Finance Committee takes place Monday, May 11, at 6:30 p.m. at Town Room at Town Hall. The Town Council is scheduled to vote on the budget June 15.
