Westwood Finance Committee reviews $135.9 million FY27 budget proposal

Finance Committee · Meeting of February 11, 2026

Westwood Finance Committee scrutinizes $135.9 million FY27 budget and hears Select Board vacancy news. Finance Director Stephanie McManus presented a proposed overall budget totaling $135.9 million, a 4.8 percent increase over FY26, with the municipal budget alone at $27.4 million, up 5.1 percent, driven almost entirely by contractual salary increases. The Select Board, meeting briefly within the Finance Committee session, voted 2-0 to elect Marianne LeBlanc-Cummings as chair following Robert Gotti's February 6 resignation, and 2-0 to place a one-year vacancy on the April 28, 2026 annual town election ballot.

The committee's sharpest debate centered on a proposal to fund two new firefighter positions, costing $278,000, through ambulance receipts rather than the tax levy; Finance Committee member Alex Yale said the move felt "like a little bit of a slippery slope" against the town's policy of reserving variable revenue for one-time expenses, while McManus presented a 10-year forward-looking analysis showing the fund remains sustainable at zero percent revenue growth. Free cash stands at $15.7 million, with $6 million proposed for FY27 appropriations; no override is planned.

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Source: the Finance Committee meeting of February 11, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.