Milford 2021 Budget Gets Green Light From FinCom

Neal McNamara
·2 min read

MILFORD, MA — The Milford Finance Committee is handing off the fiscal 2021 town budget to Town Meeting with a favorable recommendation. The proposed 2021 budget is $111.2 million, about $3.8 million higher than the current fiscal year.

Like almost every other town and city in the state, Milford is facing economic uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Finance Director had asked each town department to cut about $500,000 coming into fiscal 2021.

Here are some highlights of the 2021 budget:

  • The police and fire budgets are increasing 3.3 percent to $13.2 million. The fire department will forgo hiring up to four positions in the near term to keep costs down. The town may have to add funding later in the year for police training.

  • The education budget will increase 4 percent to $54.5 million, with $52.6 million of that for Milford Public Schools alone.

  • The Public Works budget is increasing by 3 percent to $10.2 million. A large driver of the increase is recycling costs. The town is now paying to get rid of recyclable materials. That's due to stricter import rules set by China, the largest importer of recycled materials in the world.

  • The overall culture and recreation budget, which includes the library and parks department, will rise 4.77 percent. That's in part due to a new union contract for library employees.

  • Town debt payments will drop 3.8 percent in fiscal 2021, largely due to refinancing of older bonds.

  • Elected officials will likely not see any pay increase in 2021 — the committee is recommending all salaries and stipends stay at the 2020 rate. The two highest paid elected officials are the Town Clerk at $86,426 and the Highway Supervisor at $101,458. Both of those positions have seen raises every other year dating back to 2016.

Town Meeting will take up the budget when the meeting begins on June 29. The 2021 fiscal year begins on July 1. You can see the Finance Committee's full slate of recommendations here.

This article originally appeared on the Milford Patch