Gardner MA Budget Increase Compared to Other Cities
Mayor Michael Nicholson has stated he made an effort to keep costs down in the 2023 Gardner Budget. Is that true? We did a comparison to other cities in Massachusetts to see how Gardner stacks up. With a proposed budget of $74.85 million, the Gardner budget is an increase of 5.9% over 2022. Leominster’s budget of $150.6 million is up 9.9%, Fitchburg’s budget of $149.6 million is up 7.25%, and Boston with a $4 billion budget is up 6.4%. The Chair City of Gardner MA has the lowest proposed budget increase of any of these cities. So did the Mayor make an effort to keep costs down, even in the face of inflation? The numbers say yes. And don’t forget, Gardner just had a perfect audit of its finances, the first in decades. Citizens can feel confident that Gardner is well managed. Not opinion, objective fact.