Over $400,000 in funding has been reallocated by the administration to fulfill core needs as highlighted by the City Council during budget hearings for the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget, Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn announced.
The money, leveraged from a surplus of funding available in the Highway Department, will be invested across the School Department, Library and Legislative budgets and will be used to address key needs that were a priority of department heads, the City Council and Mayor.
“When devising the FY24 budget and after submitting to the City Council earlier than usual, I knew there were areas that would need additional investments, specifically our schools which had yet to finalize its operating budget at the time,” Mayor Lungo-Koehn said. “After meeting with department heads and communicating with the City Council, I tasked our Finance Director with identifying potential opportunities in the budget where funding could be adjusted and deployed to other prioritized areas. I am relieved that after careful review of each line in the budget, we were able to identify an area we could adjust and work with our departments and the City Council to address the needs of our community. Through collaboration with all departments, City Council, and the school committee and with the careful review by the city’s chief financial officer we hope that the budget process will be complete with an affirmative vote on June 20th.”
The highlights of this funding allocation are as follows:
- $51,000 to the Legislative Department to fund the Council’s Zoning Reform initiatives
- $87,000 to the Library for library books and periodicals
- $200,000 to the School Department
“As the budget process has unfolded, and as we have learned of the requests from the City Council, I reviewed the budget in its entirety this week and based on my review, I feel the only place we can pull from is the snow and ice budget deficit,” Finance Director Bob Dickinson said. “I tend to err on the conservative side when crafting a budget, especially one as complex and comprehensive as this, but I am confident that this is a financially sound use of our funding.”
The City Council will meet on June 20 at 7 p.m. to vote on the FY24 budget.
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