An analysis, written by this project

Protection of persons & property: what the town votes for it

Police, Fire, Radio Watch and the inspectors, each with its own printed subtotal beneath the department total. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page.

lunenburgbudgetproject.org — written by the Lunenburg Budget Project, an independent tool for residents. Not affiliated with the Town of Lunenburg, the School Committee or the school district. The document this page renders: /docs/analyses/town-budget-protection.md

$4,643,717

voted for Protection of persons & property in FY2025

4.7%

a year, against the 2.5% the levy may rise by

+0.23

points of the whole budget’s growth it accounts for

What this report counts

DOLLARS VOTED at Town Meeting for the year ahead — not requested, not spent, and not a service level.

One of twelve departments in the omnibus budget Town Meeting votes each spring. All twelve together.

What it is

Police, Fire, Radio Watch and the inspectors — wiring, plumbing and gas, building, sealer of weights and measures — plus emergency management and animal control. The town prints it as Protection, and its contents page as PROTECTION OF PERSONS & PROPERTY. Each of Police, Fire, Radio Watch and Other Protection has its own printed subtotal beneath the group total.

The department

	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
voted	$4,239,355	$4,478,848	$4,643,717
a year	4.7%
share of the budget	10.5%
pull on total growth	+0.23

Its lines, as printed

FY2023

line	label	voted
	total	$0

The page prints $4,239,355 for this department. The lines above come to $0, a difference of -4239354.99.

FY2024

line	label	voted
	Protection	—
	total	$0

The page prints $4,478,848 for this department. The lines above come to $0, a difference of -4478848.28.

FY2025

line	label	voted
	total	$0

The page prints $4,643,717 for this department. The lines above come to $0, a difference of -4643717.10.

The people behind the money: the Fire Department

The Fire Department is the only part of this group that states its own strength, in the prose of its annual report, the same way every year.

The Fire Department’s career firefighters as a rising line against the on-call roll drawn as a band, because the town states it as a range. The two move in opposite directions.

fiscal year	career	on call
FY2017	5	40–45
FY2018	7	40–45
FY2019	7	40–45
FY2020	7	40–45
FY2021	8	40–45
FY2022	10	30–35
FY2023	10	30–35
FY2024	10	30–35
FY2025	10	30–35

Career firefighters went from 5 to 10 while the on-call roll fell from 40–45 to 30–35: the department grew and shrank at once, in different kinds of staff. Police states no strength at all, so the other half of this budget group has no published headcount to set beside its money.

What this cannot show

What any department ASKED for. The omnibus is what Town Meeting voted, which is already balanced — the difference between a request and a vote is where a cut lives, and the annual report prints only the second.
What was actually spent. Voted and spent are different quantities and rule 1 forbids mixing them in one calculation.
Whether any department reduced SERVICE. A department can hold its dollars and cut its hours, and a dollar figure will not say so.
Why any line moved. The omnibus states an amount and gives no reason for it, so every explanation of a movement here would be a hypothesis.
Anything about FY2026 below the total. The FY2025 annual report prints no department figures at all.
That growing faster than the levy cap is a problem. Proposition 2½ limits the LEVY, not the budget: the budget is the levy plus state aid, local receipts and transfers, and new growth raises the levy limit on top of the 2.5%. The cap is used here as a common reference point every board in town already uses — it is not a ceiling anybody breached.

Where this came from

Nothing on this page is an official document. It was written here, from documents the town and district published and from records obtained by request, and it has not been reviewed or endorsed by the Town of Lunenburg, the School Committee, the Finance Committee or Lunenburg Public Schools. The report index says the same thing at more length, and lists every analysis alongside the data underneath it.

This page renders the document itself, which is the source of truth: there is one copy of every sentence and every figure here, not a transcription of one.

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Every other report

The budget feed — every board, everything about money →What the town is deciding now →The blog — one finding at a time, in two minutes →This week in town — meetings coming up, minutes and recordings just posted →The boards — each one, in one place →Meeting minutes — written from the recordings →Lunenburg by the numbers — who lives here →Lunenburg’s homes and the tax bill →Homes and students — the town builds, the schools do not grow →The boards, compared →Youth sports and the fields →The School Committee’s finances — every fund and line it owns →Parks & Recreation — the department, its fund, its sales, its grounds →Health insurance →Free cash — can it fill the gap? →Teacher contracts →School user and athletic fees →Extracurriculars — sports, music and clubs →Classroom positions and class size →Overrides →Commercial development and new growth →Special education — four reports →How many students one special education group may have →The circuit breaker — what the state reimburses for the costliest placements →What other districts spend, for each pupil →What the state requires us to spend — and where that puts us →Chapter 70 — the formula, and why it pays the floor →How Chapter 70 actually works, in eight steps →School staffing — did it go up, and over which years →Who works in each school →The paraprofessionals →What courses actually ran, subject by subject →AP exams — who sits them, in what, and how they score →The cut register — what was announced, and what shows →Funding that stopped →When a grant ends — who picks up the bill →Who is in the schools — enrolment, FY1994 to today →Which grades students leave in →Who leaves Lunenburg schools, and where they go →Monty Tech — the assessment, and what sets it →If students leave — what school choice would cost →What a family actually pays →What sports cost, and who pays →Health insurance — the cost outside the school budget →Budget against reported spending →

Every analysis this project has written, in one index, is at reports.