Winthrop’s Town Council has approved a $68 million annual budget, up nearly 3 percent, while anticipating that last year’s Proposition 2-1/2 override will help avoid some of the financial crises of surrounding communities.

The council approved the spending plan, for the fiscal year that begins next month, in a series of votes this past week on the main town operating blueprint and several accompanying accounts and funds.

The $68.4 million budget for fiscal 2027 is 2.95 percent higher than the current town outline of $66.4 million.

Tax implications

The average annual tax bill in Winthrop – currently $8,293 for a house of the average value of $744,423 – is estimated to rise by about $21 or 0.26 percent, pending certifications of assessed values, town officials said.

That follows the vote last year in which Winthrop residents agreed to raise their taxes by nearly $5 million beyond the state’s general limit of 2.5 percent, and agreed to spend $38.5 million on a new fire station. That produced a one-year tax increase of about 17 percent.

Town Council members voted unanimously for the new annual budget on Tuesday and voiced little opposition to its elements. Some members, however, did make clear their growing attention to issues such as the schools – which represents the majority share of the budget – and their concern about the high costs of special education and education-related transportation.

Last year’s town-wide vote to override the limits of the state’s Proposition 2-1/2 law – with the proceeds designed for the schools – is a key part of why Winthrop is not looking at staff layoffs, as is happening in places such as Boston, Revere and Chelsea, said Winthrop’s Town Council’s president, Jim Letterie.

Avoiding layoffs

Winthrop also is helped by the fact that it chose to use the money it received from federal bailout aid, distributed nationally in response to the 2020 Covid pandemic, for longer-term projects only, such as technology upgrades in the schools, and not for any daily operations, Mr Letterie said on the WCAT program Winthrop and the World.

“We knew then what we had and we knew that we couldn’t overspend that,” he said.

In many other cities and towns in the state, budget cuts and staff layoffs are reaching levels last seen in the recession of 2008 and 2009, the Massachusetts Municipal Association has said.

The Winthrop Town Council approved the new town budget a week after the School Committee and the union representing the town’s teachers ratified a new three-year contract, which was reached after nearly a year of negotiations. The schools account for most of the overall town budget, and salaries represent most of the school costs.

Health increases

Before they voted to approve the town’s annual budget, some members of the Winthrop Town Council did press town officials on a number of matters, including explanations for why some expenses are treated as long-term versus operating costs, and said they expected in the future to see more details of department-by-department spending.

The largest percentage increase in the town’s budget was a 42.8 percent jump in spending for the Health Department. The spending increase reflected the town coping with the loss of “three substantial grants,” town budget officials said in a statement explaining the shift.

Winthrop officials have said the town has lost or been made ineligible for some $2.5 million in state funding due to its refusal to comply with the state’s 3A housing law, and Mr Letterie recently suggested a willingness to reconsider that position.

The largest percentage decrease in the town budget involved a 42.7 percent reduction for the municipal hearing office. That office processes parking tickets, and the related expenditures of that work were moved to the treasurer’s office to improve payment systems, the officials said.