Town Administrator Rob Dolan released the “Road to the Town Budget” video via the Lynnfield Media Studios Vimeo channel late last month, explaining the process of how the town comes up with the town budget, which is then presented through various articles and voted on by residents during the annual Town Meeting.
Dolan said that he released the video in association with Select Board members Joe Connell, Dick Dalton, and Phil Crawford to educate the general public.
“With all the things on TV, the last thing that you want to listen to is me talking about municipal government,” Dolan said in an interview with The Weekly News. “There are a large number of people who don’t understand the process, and it at least gives you a ground level of why we do things, and why things happen.”
Dolan said that videos like this are specifically more effective in towns like Lynnfield than in cities.
“In a city, it is more of a top-down form of government,” Dolan said. “The mayor is the CEO, the city council is the board of directors, and people play very little role outside of public input. In Lynnfield, however, particularly with the open town meeting and with the number of boards and commissions we have, it means the people have as much or more power than the Board of Selectmen almost on any issue.”
Another reason why Dolan created the video is Lynnfield’s changing demographics.
“There are a lot of young people moving into town,” Dolan said. “I seek to invite those people to participate and acknowledge and understand how much power they have in their community. In town meetings, I generally see the same faces, and those faces tend to be a little more senior.”
The first part of the video explains the different streams of revenue for the town, such as state aid. In the video, Dolan revealed that while the town received $900,000 in state aid last year for public education, the amount that the town will receive for fiscal year 2025 is just $75,000.
“So the state seems to be having a very difficult time meeting their revenue assumptions, and that’s a challenge for local cities and towns,” Dolan said.
Dolan then spoke about how decreased revenue for FY25 will present challenges for the creation of the school budget, and that the school budget is what Lynnfield’s budget is traditionally based around.
“Taxation and local fees are strong, but if you see that drop off from last year to this year, that decline has dramatic effects on our schools, in our government budgets,” Dolan said. “That’s the foundation of a lot of the challenges we’re seeing in our schools because needs have never been higher.”
The next part of the video explains the different expenses that the town is fully or partly responsible for, such as pensions, the MBTA, Medicare and Medicaid, health insurance, and debt obligations.
“In a small town like Lynnfield that is well over 90% residential with minimal business, it’s a challenge and it always will be,” Dolan said.
In the video, Dolan also listed the different departments such as Fire, Police, and Public Works. He mentioned each department’s responsibilities and the challenges they face with a tight budget.
Dolan said that the budget process started in mid-December and will last through April 29, the date of the annual Town Meeting.
