By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD – With few in attendance and little discussion from the floor, Annual Town Meeting last night approved the $134,466,443 town operating budget for Fiscal Year 2026, which begins on July 1.
Before getting down to business, town Moderator William H. Carroll treated attendees to a brief history of the pre-Revolutionary, colonial roots of Wakefield’s Open Town Meeting form of government, calling it “the purest form of democracy.”
As a prelude to taking up the FY2026 budget, Finance Committee member Dan Sherman presented his annual report and forecast with respect to the town’s finances. The bottom line, he said, was that spending is increasing as revenues are decreasing. As a result, he said that in the coming years the Finance Committee expects to be looking at service cuts.
FinCom Chairman James Sullivan echoed those concerns, noting that spending continues to outpace revenues. He characterized the issue as “a little bit of a spending problem and a little bit on an income problem.”
Moving to Article 1, Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio, who is retiring in July, presented his final town operating budget.
Maio noted that, unlike many communities, Wakefield is not facing an override or budget cuts in FY2026.
As is the custom at Town Meeting, each section of the $134,466,443 FY2026 budget was taken up and voted separately.
Maio first discussed the $3,176,549 requested for General Government, including an increase of $138,938. The General Government section of the budget is comprised mainly of the departments at Town Hall. Maio said that most of those departmental budgets were level funded except for contractually negotiated salary increases.
Town Meeting approved the General Government portion of the budget with no discussion from the floor.
Next, Maio presented the “Protection of Persons and Property” section of the budget, which includes the Police and Fire Departments. The total of the Police and Fire budgets was $16,489,586, including a 5 percent increase of $801,113.
The Police budget total was $7,931,833. The Fire Department total was 7,826,406.
The Protection of Persons and Property budget also includes the Fire Alarm/Traffic Lights budget ($78,000), Emergency Management ($94,030), Inspectional Services $506,867, the Animal Inspector ($41,325) and the Parking Clerk ($11,125).
Voters approved the Protection of Persons and Property section of the budget with no discussion from the floor.
Maio next presented the Human Services portion of the budget, at $1,096,610, representing a decrease of $33,721 from the current year’s budget.
The Human Services budget includes the Council on Aging ($298,626), the Health and Human Services Department ($491,896), the Recreation Department ($136,136) and the Veterans Services Department ($169,952).
Voters approved the Human Services Department with no discussion from the floor of Town Meeting.
Maio then moved to the $8,364,546 Public Works budget, which he said included an increase of $255,567 (3 percent). Maio described the spending package as a “no frills budget.” Town Meeting voters approved the DPW budget with no further discussion.
Voters also approved the self-funded Water Division budget ($7,893,691) and Sewer Division budget ($9,536,482) with no discussion.
School Superintendent Douglas Lyons presented the $55,540,161 School Department budget, which comprises 49 percent of the town’s overall operating budget.
Lyons noted that salaries are the biggest cost driver of the budget, which is up nearly 6 percent over the current year. He also pointed to a large increase in the number of non-English speaking students who require services and accommodations.
Bob McLaughlin of Water Street asked Lyons about projected enrollment levels, given the amount of new development in the town driven in part by changes in state regulations. McLaughlin suggested that new classroom space will be required given the anticipated population growth.
Lyons admitted that class sizes are increasing in Pre-K through Grade 2, but maintained that the current school buildings should be able to handle the increased number of students.
Voters approved the School Department budget.
The Library Department budget was approved at $2,088,525 with no discussion from the floor.
The Vocational School budget was approved at $2,659,327, including an increase of $100,842.
Maio next presented the “Unclassified” section of the budget, which included $178,131 for street lights, $2,000 for the Historical Commission, $531,625 for General Insurance, $1,087,850 for Medicare, $75,000 for Unemployment Insurance, $400,000 for the reserve Fund and $493,500 for Cable TV Public Access.
Town meeting voted to approve a total of $2,768,106 for the Unclassified portion of the budget.
Maio then discussed the $21,824,922 Benefits and Administration budget, including a 5.5 percent increase of $1,154,713.
Maio discussed the fact the health insurance costs have risen significantly, coming in at $13,945,100 for FY2026.
Town Meeting approved the Benefits and Administration budget.
Finally, Town Meeting approved Maio’s motion that the Town appropriate sums of money from the Municipal Gas & Light Department for various purposes, including $1,149,142 to the Contributory Retirement Pension Accumulation Fund Account, $1,831,301 to the Employees’ Group Insurance Account and $47,495.00 to the Workers’ Compensation Account. He further moved that the balance of the receipts of the MGLD from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 be appropriated for the use of the Department for other expenditures.
The Daily Item will feature more coverage of Monday’s opening Town Meeting session in tomorrow’s edition. Town Meeting will continue on Thursday, May 8 at 7 p.m. in the Galvin Middle School auditorium.