The Balanced Budget Myth: Why May's Town Meeting Didn't Solve the Problem

On May 5, 2025, Town Meeting passed a balanced budget for FY26. Some might ask: "If we have a balanced budget, why do we need an override?"

The answer is painfully simple: a balanced budget is not the same as a good budget.

School Committee Chair Jaime Wallace stated it clearly at the May 6th Select Board meeting that the passed budget was "the band-aid. This was the one-year fix." The School Committee explicitly recognized this was a temporary patch, not a solution.

Town Administrator Dennis Sheehan confirmed what multiple analyses had shown: "We knew this level of service was around this number, no matter how many adjustments we tried to make."

The May budget "solved" the crisis by:

• Cutting positions across multiple departments
• Borrowing $1.2 million from funds that should have gone to the stabilization account
• Leaving the library at risk of losing state accreditation
• Reducing Council on Aging services for seniors
• Maintaining understaffing in Police, Fire, and DPW
• Deferring necessary investments in town infrastructure

Select Board member Ryan Foreman put it bluntly: "The budget that was passed [at town meeting] was passed with cuts that hurt our town and money that is stolen from our town's future. It is not sustainable."

The only sustainable solution to Stoneham's budget shortfall is the passage of a Proposition 2 ½ override.

This article was originally posted to SaveOurStoneham.org.