Fiscal Year 2024 Budget to be in line with Fiscal 2023 in Gardner MA
“There’s not much new in there”, says Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson. “We’re always a lot more fiscally conservative when we propose the budget just because of the situations that are happening around us. While gas prices are starting to come down, there’s still some prices that are still high, there’s still some concerns about how interest rates are going to be going. So this is a very fiscally conservative budget. Its got the regular tax increases that we would see annually under the provisions of proposition 2 and 1/2. But there’s not much new in there.” The plan is to have a bare bones budget now and then do a supplemental budget in the November – December time frame. The Mayor stated that the increase of 4 million dollars from the State going towards education will “free up some of those tax dollars to help us on our city side.” Hear all of the Mayor’s comments in the Gardner Going Great Interview, CLICK HERE.
In the next month or so, the budget will be discussed in City Council and School Committee meetings and details will be released. For the current 2023 Fiscal Year budget, we refer you to a May 2022 article which included all of the Mayor’s submissions last year, CLICK HERE. Budget must be approved by the City Council prior to the start of the 2024 fiscal year on July 1, 2023. One item we know won’t be in the budget – close to $20,000 for the cost of a Federal audit, the savings the City of Gardner will realize after having a Perfect Federal Audit for the 3rd year in a row and now not having to undergo one for at least 3 years.