Explore Framingham’s FY27 Budget, Line by Line

FRAMINGHAM – The City Council approved a $398 million operating budget for fiscal year 2027 on June 16, on a 6-5 vote that followed months of debate and an earlier 9-1 rejection of the mayor’s original $401 million proposal. The budget book behind that vote runs to 80 pages of line items. This page puts all of it in one searchable table, along with the numbers behind the fights.

Five things to know

1. Your tax bill goes up $279. The budget raises the tax levy 3.5% — down from the 4.5% in Mayor Charlie Sisitsky’s first proposal. For a single-family home at the median value of $681,423, the city projects a bill of $8,340, up $279. The fiscal year began July 1.

2. Schools took the largest cuts — and drove the no votes. Framingham Public Schools requested $190.5 million and the approved budget funds $187.2 million, a 2.2% increase over FY26 that still required the School Committee to approve 112 position reductions (15 of them actual layoffs; the rest transfers, non-reappointments and vacancies). District enrollment has dropped by more than 750 students in under two years. Councilor Brandon Ward’s motion to add back $957,082 for ESL, SAGE and interventionist positions failed 5-6.

3. Senior services lost a dedicated director in a contested reorganization. The budget eliminates the Director of Aging Services and puts the Council on Aging under the Library’s umbrella — the Council on Aging budget drops 7.2%, from $701,145 to $650,483. Councilor Mary Kate Feeney’s nonbinding motion asking the mayor to restore the position using the state’s Council on Aging formula grant (about $256,000 a year for Framingham, with a $464,000 accumulated surplus) passed 9-2. One wrinkle worth knowing: the budget book itself still prints the Council on Aging inside the Parks & Recreation Division — the announced Library reorganization isn’t reflected in the book’s structure.

4. The budget leans on $10 million in one-time money. The approved plan uses $10 million in free cash — $4 million less than the rejected first version, but still the kind of recurring-expense-on-one-time-revenue arrangement that municipal finance experts warn against, and a big part of why councilors called the budget “structurally deficient” in May. The city has about $21 million in free cash available.

5. The quiet drivers are benefits, pensions and debt. Beyond the headline fights, the fastest-growing costs are employee benefits and insurance (up $5.5 million), the school appropriation (up $4.4 million including Keefe Tech), pensions and retiree benefits (up $1.8 million), and state charges and overlay (up $1.8 million). Public safety is roughly level: Police up 1.5%, Fire up 3.2%. Sanitation drops $768,000 — the largest department cut in dollars.

Where the money goes

The general fund pays for city and school operations. Water and sewer service is charged separately through rates, in enterprise funds of $29.1 million and $34.6 million that aren’t part of the $398 million.

Horizontal bar chart of Framingham's FY2027 general fund budget by department. Schools including Keefe Tech are by far the largest at $198.1 million, followed by employee benefits and insurance at $57.3 million, pensions and retiree benefits at $28.2 million, Police at $21.8 million, Fire at $19.2 million and debt service at $19 million. Departments below the top twelve are grouped as all other departments.

What changed from last year

Diverging bar chart of the largest FY2026 to FY2027 budget changes by Framingham department. Employee benefits and insurance grew the most, up $5.5 million, followed by schools up $4.4 million, state charges and overlay up $1.8 million, and pensions up $1.8 million. The only cuts among the top twelve movers are Sanitation, down $768,000, and Highway, down $211,000. Increases are shown in blue and cuts in red.

Explore every line item

Every line in the city’s budget book, grouped by department. Click a department to see its line items, click the arrow on any line for the account detail and the city’s own explanation, and use the search box to find anything — the search also covers those explanations, so terms like “crossing guards,” “Zamboni” or “stormwater” will find the lines behind them. Click column headers to sort.

Notes on the data

The numbers come from the city’s FY27 MUNIS budget book dated June 15, 2026 — the version before the Council’s final June 16 vote. Every extracted line item reconciles against the book’s own printed department totals, and the general fund departments sum exactly to the book’s printed total of $397,965,787. News reports describe the approved budget as $398.2 million; the roughly $234,000 gap between that figure and this book is either rounding in coverage or late floor changes. [VERIFY: check the final appropriation order against this book’s total.]
“FY27 approved” here is the book’s recommended column. The book also records what each department requested — citywide, requests totaled $410.3 million, $12.3 million more than what was funded. The requested figure for each line is in its expandable detail row.
The budget book still shows the Council on Aging inside the Parks & Recreation Division and Veterans Services under Human Resources, even though the administration’s reorganization plan moves both under the Library. The dollar figures reflect the reorganization; the book’s department structure does not.
One known inconsistency in the city’s own document: the Engineering division’s printed operating total for FY27 requested is $2,000 higher than the sum of its own line items (in both the PDF and this extraction). It does not affect the approved numbers.
Water and sewer are enterprise funds paid through rates, shown in their own tabs; they are not part of the $398 million general fund.

Sources: FY27 Budget MUNIS book, City of Framingham · MetroWest Daily News coverage of the June 16 vote [VERIFY URL]

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