Delayed 2025 Marlborough Schools Budget Inbound: District

MARLBOROUGH, MA — The first step in Marlborough's annual public budget-making process — which ultimately decides which direction tax rates will go — will be slightly delayed this year.

MPS finance director Thomas LaFleur asked the school committee at the Feb. 13 meeting to agree to a new budget timeline. He said the delivery of the fiscal year 2025 (July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025) budget was delayed due to “ongoing negotiations and other factors.” The school committee is in the midst of negotiating sessions with the Marlborough Education Association teachers' union.

The district typically delivers its budget to the school committee in February. The school district budget is the biggest single piece of Marlborough's total annual budget, and so the document is crucial for elected officials who craft the budget through the spring months.

According to LaFleur, the updated timeline for the school budget process will be:

• March 12, budget presented to the school committee
• March 26, school committee budget workshop
• April 9, final budget figure determined by school committee
• April 30, a public hearing and vote to approve
• May 6, MPS budget delivered to the Marlborough City Council

Last year, the budget went to the school committee on Feb. 14 and made it to the city council in early April. The district's initial fiscal 2024 budget request was for $71.9 million, an increase of 3.6 percent over fiscal 2023. The city council passed the entire $188.7 million city budget in 2023 on May 22.

Following the passage of the budget, the city council sets the tax rate toward the end of each year. Councilors set the tax rate last year at its lowest point this century at $10.24, although higher tax bills are possible due to increases in property values.