{
 "about": "What Town Meeting voted for every town department, and which departments move the total.",
 "biggest": {
  "change": 1730183.0,
  "excess": 284305.8260677269,
  "first": 23397371.0,
  "last": 25127554.0,
  "name": "Schools",
  "pull": 0.6457922292972955,
  "rate": 3.6314504629767264,
  "series": {
   "2023": 23397371.0,
   "2024": 24082518.0,
   "2025": 25127554.0
  },
  "share": 57.076491674083954,
  "slug": "schools"
 },
 "conclusions": [
  {
   "basis": "The twelve group totals the FY2025 omnibus prints, as shares of the grand total on the same page.",
   "bearing": "sizes",
   "claim": "More than half the town budget is the schools, and four departments are five sixths of it",
   "detail": "Before any question about growth: this is how one voted budget divides between the twelve departments that share it. Schools takes 57.1% of the FY2025 voted budget. Adding Protection, employee benefits and debt service brings four departments to 84.1% of the whole. The largest department is 313 times the size of the smallest.",
   "figure": "share",
   "figures": {
    "four": {
     "text": "84.1%",
     "unit": "in the four largest departments",
     "value": 84.05738245054111
    },
    "ratio": {
     "text": "313",
     "unit": "times: the largest department against the smallest",
     "value": 312.9209713574097
    },
    "share": {
     "text": "57.1%",
     "unit": "of the voted budget, the school line",
     "value": 57.076491674083954
    }
   },
   "id": "who-gets-it",
   "kind": "measured",
   "literals": [
    "FY2025"
   ],
   "not_shown": "What any department buys with it, or how many people it employs.",
   "see": [],
   "so_what": "Most of what the town votes on is one department, and most of the rest is three."
  },
  {
   "basis": "The twelve group totals each omnibus prints, FY2023 against FY2025.",
   "bearing": "sizes",
   "claim": "Ten of the twelve departments grew faster than the levy cap, not one of them",
   "detail": "Every department in the voted budget except Central Purchasing and debt service outgrew the 2.5% the levy may rise by. Across the three years the town publishes department detail for, 10 of 12 departments grew faster than 2.5% a year. Only Central Purchasing, which is nearly flat, and maturing debt, which falls as bonds are paid off, did not. The budget rose 2.9% a year in total over the same period.",
   "figure": "above",
   "figures": {
    "above": {
     "text": "10 of 12",
     "unit": "departments",
     "value": 10
    },
    "cap": {
     "text": "2.5%",
     "unit": "a year",
     "value": 2.5
    },
    "total": {
     "text": "2.9%",
     "unit": "a year",
     "value": 2.911288965581438
    }
   },
   "id": "not-one-department",
   "kind": "measured",
   "literals": [],
   "not_shown": "Why any of them grew. An amount voted gives no reason for itself.",
   "see": [],
   "so_what": "An argument about one department is an argument about part of the problem."
  },
  {
   "basis": "Total Schools against the other eleven group totals, FY2023 to FY2025.",
   "bearing": "sizes",
   "claim": "The schools are the biggest line in the budget and not the fastest growing one",
   "detail": "At 57.1% of the budget the school line dominates the total, but eight departments grew faster than it did. The school appropriation grew 3.6% a year across the three years, which is slower than eight of the eleven departments that grew at all. What grew fastest of the large lines is employee benefits and reserves — seven tenths of it group health insurance — at 12.7% a year.",
   "figure": "schools",
   "figures": {
    "schools": {
     "text": "3.6%",
     "unit": "a year, the school line",
     "value": 3.6314504629767264
    },
    "share": {
     "text": "57.1%",
     "unit": "of the voted budget",
     "value": 57.076491674083954
    },
    "top": {
     "text": "12.7%",
     "unit": "a year",
     "value": 12.722636179798208
    }
   },
   "id": "schools-are-not-the-fastest",
   "kind": "measured",
   "literals": [],
   "not_shown": "What the school line buys, or whether it kept buying the same things.",
   "see": [],
   "so_what": "Size and growth are different questions and the school line answers them differently."
  },
  {
   "basis": "Each group’s own FY2025 figure times how far its growth exceeds the levy cap — dollars a year, not an index.",
   "bearing": "sizes",
   "claim": "Employee benefits move the total more than the schools do",
   "detail": "Weight times excess growth, not weight alone: a small line growing fast can push the total harder than a huge line growing slowly. Employee benefits and reserves are 9.8% of the voted budget and grew 12.7% a year, which is $438,870 a year more than the levy cap would carry. The schools are 57.1% of it and grew more slowly, at $284,306 a year above the cap. The smaller line does more of the pushing, and seven tenths of it is group health insurance.",
   "figure": "tpull",
   "figures": {
    "spull": {
     "text": "$284,306",
     "unit": "a year above the cap, from the schools",
     "value": 284305.8260677269
    },
    "sshare": {
     "text": "57.1%",
     "unit": "",
     "value": 57.076491674083954
    },
    "tpull": {
     "text": "$438,870",
     "unit": "a year above the cap, from employee benefits",
     "value": 438870.34197444736
    },
    "trate": {
     "text": "12.7%",
     "unit": "a year",
     "value": 12.722636179798208
    },
    "tshare": {
     "text": "9.8%",
     "unit": "",
     "value": 9.751701158537896
    }
   },
   "id": "pull-not-size",
   "kind": "measured",
   "literals": [],
   "not_shown": "How much of the health insurance is school staff. The budget does not split it.",
   "see": [],
   "so_what": "Ranking departments by size points at the wrong one to ask questions about."
  },
  {
   "basis": "Total Maturing Debt in the FY2023 and FY2025 omnibus budgets.",
   "bearing": "sizes",
   "claim": "Debt service fell by a third and the budget still grew — the room was absorbed",
   "detail": "Maturing debt and interest is the only line in the voted budget that falls, and it falls a long way. Debt service fell from $4,497,723 to $2,941,322 across the three years, freeing $1,556,402 a year. The total still rose, so the room the roll-off created went to other lines rather than to the levy.",
   "figure": "freed",
   "figures": {
    "freed": {
     "text": "$1,556,402",
     "unit": "a year freed by debt rolling off",
     "value": 1556401.8499999996
    },
    "now": {
     "text": "$2,941,322",
     "unit": "",
     "value": 2941321.5
    },
    "was": {
     "text": "$4,497,723",
     "unit": "",
     "value": 4497723.35
    }
   },
   "id": "debt-rolled-off",
   "kind": "measured",
   "literals": [],
   "not_shown": "Which lines the freed money went to. The budget does not trace it.",
   "see": [],
   "so_what": "Debt coming off a budget is real room, and it is already spent here."
  },
  {
   "basis": "The twelve group totals, FY2023 against FY2025, aggregated three ways.",
   "bearing": "sizes",
   "claim": "Take retiring debt out and the town side grew more than twice as fast as the schools",
   "detail": "The non-school budget looks restrained until you notice that most of its restraint is bonds being paid off rather than anything anybody decided. Everything except the schools grew 2.0% a year — below the levy cap, and a figure that invites the conclusion the town side held the line. It did not: that average contains debt service falling as bonds retire. Debt is not a service. Excluding it, the rest of the town grew 8.0% a year against the schools’ 3.6%.",
   "figure": "nond",
   "figures": {
    "non": {
     "text": "2.0%",
     "unit": "a year, everything but the schools",
     "value": 1.9765227428735432
    },
    "nond": {
     "text": "8.0%",
     "unit": "a year, once retiring debt is taken out",
     "value": 8.022100316658044
    },
    "sch": {
     "text": "3.6%",
     "unit": "a year, the schools",
     "value": 3.6314504629767264
    }
   },
   "id": "town-side-without-debt",
   "kind": "measured",
   "literals": [],
   "not_shown": "Why the town side grew. This says where the money went, not what it bought or whether anybody got more of anything.",
   "see": [],
   "so_what": "An average that contains debt rolling off will understate every service in it."
  },
  {
   "basis": "The printed grand total of every omnibus, FY2012 to FY2025, and Article 10 of the 3 May 2025 Annual Town Meeting for FY2026.",
   "bearing": "sizes",
   "claim": "The largest rise in fifteen years is also the first year with no detail published",
   "detail": "FY2026 is a single number. The table that would show which departments it went to is not printed anywhere in the report. The voted budget rose 12.2% into FY2026, the largest one-year rise in the series that starts in FY2012. It is also the first year the annual report prints no department figures at all — Article 10 appears as prose, and the appropriations schedule that ran through FY2023 has stopped too.",
   "figure": "rise",
   "figures": {
    "rise": {
     "text": "12.2%",
     "unit": "in one year, the largest since FY2012",
     "value": 12.152628962009192
    },
    "year": {
     "text": "FY2026",
     "unit": "",
     "value": 2026
    }
   },
   "id": "detail-stopped",
   "kind": "measured",
   "literals": [
    "FY2012",
    "FY2023",
    "Article 10"
   ],
   "not_shown": "Which departments the rise went to. That is the figure that is missing.",
   "see": [],
   "so_what": "The year worth explaining is the year the town stopped publishing the explanation."
  }
 ],
 "departments": [
  {
   "change": 914411.8999999999,
   "excess": 438870.34197444736,
   "first": 3378711.07,
   "last": 4293122.97,
   "name": "Employee benefits & reserves",
   "pull": 0.996880930778496,
   "rate": 12.722636179798208,
   "series": {
    "2023": 3378711.07,
    "2024": 3968170.45,
    "2025": 4293122.97
   },
   "share": 9.751701158537896,
   "slug": "unclassified"
  },
  {
   "change": 1730183.0,
   "excess": 284305.8260677269,
   "first": 23397371.0,
   "last": 25127554.0,
   "name": "Schools",
   "pull": 0.6457922292972955,
   "rate": 3.6314504629767264,
   "series": {
    "2023": 23397371.0,
    "2024": 24082518.0,
    "2025": 25127554.0
   },
   "share": 57.076491674083954,
   "slug": "schools"
  },
  {
   "change": 385472.25,
   "excess": 168339.80699548218,
   "first": 1792491.65,
   "last": 2177963.9,
   "name": "General Government",
   "pull": 0.3823788655431619,
   "rate": 10.229228523736422,
   "series": {
    "2023": 1792491.65,
    "2024": 1974322.04,
    "2025": 2177963.9
   },
   "share": 4.947180231104285,
   "slug": "general-government"
  },
  {
   "change": 404362.1099999994,
   "excess": 100329.51848259603,
   "first": 4239354.99,
   "last": 4643717.1,
   "name": "Protection of persons & property",
   "pull": 0.22789551765909027,
   "rate": 4.6605432958565896,
   "series": {
    "2023": 4239354.99,
    "2024": 4478848.28,
    "2025": 4643717.1
   },
   "share": 10.548065298952348,
   "slug": "protection"
  },
  {
   "change": 157141.0,
   "excess": 94340.40662314523,
   "first": 312634.0,
   "last": 469775.0,
   "name": "Solid Waste & Recycling",
   "pull": 0.21429142817305827,
   "rate": 22.582040683975357,
   "series": {
    "2023": 312634.0,
    "2024": 352775.0,
    "2025": 469775.0
   },
   "share": 1.0670799424485482,
   "slug": "solid-waste"
  },
  {
   "change": 138145.08999999997,
   "excess": 51396.06816531321,
   "first": 884566.03,
   "last": 1022711.12,
   "name": "Facilities & Grounds",
   "pull": 0.11674464043408884,
   "rate": 7.525472702918612,
   "series": {
    "2023": 884566.03,
    "2024": 981645.45,
    "2025": 1022711.12
   },
   "share": 2.32305789595251,
   "slug": "facilities-grounds"
  },
  {
   "change": 90905.85000000003,
   "excess": 36960.84730677471,
   "first": 492983.92,
   "last": 583889.77,
   "name": "Library",
   "pull": 0.08395546552490606,
   "rate": 8.830107017763765,
   "series": {
    "2023": 492983.92,
    "2024": 539126.28,
    "2025": 583889.77
   },
   "share": 1.32628824898706,
   "slug": "library"
  },
  {
   "change": 46493.919999999984,
   "excess": 17409.484062218933,
   "first": 294404.08,
   "last": 340898.0,
   "name": "Assistance",
   "pull": 0.03954512532844765,
   "rate": 7.606948137630298,
   "series": {
    "2023": 294404.08,
    "2024": 335081.85,
    "2025": 340898.0
   },
   "share": 0.77433966946054,
   "slug": "assistance"
  },
  {
   "change": 123832.15999999968,
   "excess": 8994.258544365237,
   "first": 2101444.93,
   "last": 2225277.09,
   "name": "Public Works",
   "pull": 0.02043019081451465,
   "rate": 2.9041860038367284,
   "series": {
    "2023": 2101444.93,
    "2024": 2168287.64,
    "2025": 2225277.09
   },
   "share": 5.0546507352014745,
   "slug": "public-works"
  },
  {
   "change": 18559.14,
   "excess": 7597.444303333048,
   "first": 99259.6,
   "last": 117818.74,
   "name": "Health & Sanitation",
   "pull": 0.01725736880412257,
   "rate": 8.948417546591525,
   "series": {
    "2023": 99259.6,
    "2024": 104961.15,
    "2025": 117818.74
   },
   "share": 0.26762176424577827,
   "slug": "health-sanitation"
  },
  {
   "change": 2500.0,
   "excess": -727.5341047167449,
   "first": 77800.0,
   "last": 80300.0,
   "name": "Central Purchasing",
   "pull": -0.0016525720836368483,
   "rate": 1.5939799443128955,
   "series": {
    "2023": 77800.0,
    "2024": 80300.0,
    "2025": 80300.0
   },
   "share": 0.18239906205868434,
   "slug": "central-purchasing"
  },
  {
   "change": -1556401.8499999996,
   "excess": -636276.6520567131,
   "first": 4497723.35,
   "last": 2941321.5,
   "name": "Maturing Debt & Interest",
   "pull": -1.445283493710888,
   "rate": -19.132339479268524,
   "series": {
    "2023": 4497723.35,
    "2024": 3518012.81,
    "2025": 2941321.5
   },
   "share": 6.681124318966905,
   "slug": "maturing-debt"
  }
 ],
 "detail_years": [
  2023,
  2024,
  2025
 ],
 "generated_by": "scripts/build_town_budgets.py",
 "grain": "DOLLARS VOTED at Town Meeting, in the omnibus budget for the year ahead. Not what any department requested, not what it spent, and not a service level. A voted budget is already balanced, so it records who absorbed the pressure rather than who is short.",
 "levy_cap": 2.5,
 "not_established": [
  "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."
 ],
 "pictogram": {
  "glyphs": {
   "assistance": "M12 21.4l-7.1-5.6a4.4 4.4 0 115.3-6.9L12 9.6l1.8-.7a4.4 4.4 0 115.3 6.9zM12 4.2a2.4 2.4 0 110 4.8 2.4 2.4 0 010-4.8z",
   "central-purchasing": "M12 2.6l8.6 3.6-8.6 3.6L3.4 6.2zM2.6 7.6l8.6 3.6v9.2L2.6 16.8zm18.8 0v9.2l-8.6 3.6v-9.2z",
   "facilities-grounds": "M20.3 5.3l-3.1 3.1-1.9-.4-.4-1.9 3.1-3.1a5.5 5.5 0 00-6.7 6.9L3.6 17.6a1.9 1.9 0 102.7 2.7l7.7-7.7a5.5 5.5 0 006.3-7.3z",
   "general-government": "M12 2.6l9.2 4.5v1.7H2.8V7.1zM4.6 10.4h2.2v7.9H4.6zm3.9 0h2.2v7.9H8.5zm3.9 0h2.2v7.9h-2.2zm3.9 0h2.2v7.9h-2.2zM3.4 19.6h17.2v1.8H3.4z",
   "health-sanitation": "M9.4 2.6h5.2v6.8h6.8v5.2h-6.8v6.8H9.4v-6.8H2.6V9.4h6.8z",
   "library": "M2.6 5.4c2.9-.9 5.8-.9 8.7.5v13c-2.9-1.4-5.8-1.4-8.7-.5zm18.8 0v13c-2.9-.9-5.8-.9-8.7.5v-13c2.9-1.4 5.8-1.4 8.7-.5z",
   "maturing-debt": "M4 6.2c0-1.3 2.9-2.2 6.4-2.2s6.4.9 6.4 2.2-2.9 2.2-6.4 2.2S4 7.5 4 6.2zm0 2.9c1.4.9 3.8 1.4 6.4 1.4s5-.5 6.4-1.4v2.3c0 1.3-2.9 2.2-6.4 2.2S4 12.7 4 11.4zm0 4.7c1.4.9 3.8 1.4 6.4 1.4s5-.5 6.4-1.4v2.3c0 1.3-2.9 2.2-6.4 2.2S4 17.4 4 16.1z",
   "protection": "M3 13.4l1.9-4.3c.3-.7.9-1.1 1.7-1.1h10.8c.8 0 1.4.4 1.7 1.1L21 13.4v4.3h-2.3a2.2 2.2 0 01-4.4 0H9.7a2.2 2.2 0 01-4.4 0H3zM6.6 9.7l-1.2 3h13.2l-1.2-3zM10.8 5.2h2.4v1.9h-2.4zM7.5 16.4a1.1 1.1 0 100 2.2 1.1 1.1 0 000-2.2zm9 0a1.1 1.1 0 100 2.2 1.1 1.1 0 000-2.2z",
   "public-works": "M2 14.6l2.6-5.4h7.9v5.4zM13.6 7.4h3.6l3.4 3.6v4h-1.5a2.1 2.1 0 01-4.2 0h-1.3zM2 15.8h11.6v1.9h-1a2.1 2.1 0 01-4.2 0H2zM6.6 16.6a1.1 1.1 0 100 2.2 1.1 1.1 0 000-2.2zm11 0a1.1 1.1 0 100 2.2 1.1 1.1 0 000-2.2z",
   "schools": "M12 2l9 4.6v2H3v-2zM11.4 3.9v2.2h1.2V3.9zM4.6 10.3h14.8v11.1H14v-5.1h-4v5.1H4.6zm2.2 2v2.6h2.6v-2.6zm8.4 0v2.6h2.6v-2.6z",
   "solid-waste": "M8.4 2.8h7.2v1.7h4.1v2.2H4.3V4.5h4.1zM5.6 8.1h12.8l-1 12.1c-.1.8-.7 1.2-1.5 1.2H8.1c-.8 0-1.4-.4-1.5-1.2zm3 2.6v8h1.6v-8zm3.6 0v8h1.6v-8z",
   "unclassified": "M9.4 2.6h5.2v6.8h6.8v5.2h-6.8v6.8H9.4v-6.8H2.6V9.4h6.8z"
  },
  "unit": 1000000,
  "unit_label": "dollars"
 },
 "prose": {
  "book": 2025,
  "fy": 2026,
  "page": 140,
  "parts": [
   [
    "raised and appropriated",
    48942526.53
   ],
   [
    "Sewer Enterprise Fund",
    307125.25
   ],
   [
    "Artificial Turf Revolving Fund",
    38453.78
   ],
   [
    "PEG Access and Cable Related Enterprise Fund",
    31271.94
   ],
   [
    "Water Betterment Revenue",
    55087.5
   ]
  ],
  "total": 49374465.0
 },
 "reconcile": {
  "2023": {
   "difference": -0.3,
   "groups": 41568744.62,
   "n": 12,
   "printed": 41568744.92
  },
  "2024": {
   "difference": 0.0,
   "groups": 42584048.95,
   "n": 12,
   "printed": 42584048.95
  },
  "2025": {
   "difference": 0.0,
   "groups": 44024349.19,
   "n": 12,
   "printed": 44024349.19
  }
 },
 "smallest": {
  "change": 2500.0,
  "excess": -727.5341047167449,
  "first": 77800.0,
  "last": 80300.0,
  "name": "Central Purchasing",
  "pull": -0.0016525720836368483,
  "rate": 1.5939799443128955,
  "series": {
   "2023": 77800.0,
   "2024": 80300.0,
   "2025": 80300.0
  },
  "share": 0.18239906205868434,
  "slug": "central-purchasing"
 },
 "sources": [
  {
   "basis": "published",
   "note": "Every one of these reconciles against every total the table prints about itself. FY2023 and FY2024 land on the town’s own +$0.80, recorded as an attested reading rather than a defect in ours.",
   "what": "The FY2023, FY2024 and FY2025 omnibus budgets, department by department",
   "where": "The annual town reports for FY2022, FY2023 and FY2024 — each prints the omnibus for the year AHEAD, as voted at that spring’s Town Meeting"
  },
  {
   "basis": "published",
   "note": "A single printed figure per year. The department detail beneath it is only reconciled for the last three.",
   "what": "The voted total for every year from FY2012 to FY2025",
   "where": "The GRAND TOTAL each annual report prints at the foot of its omnibus"
  },
  {
   "basis": "published",
   "note": "No department table is printed for FY2026 in any form. The five funding sources the article names sum to the total exactly, which is the only check available on it, and it passes.",
   "what": "The FY2026 total",
   "where": "Article 10 of the 3 May 2025 Annual Town Meeting, printed as prose on page 140 of the FY2025 annual report"
  }
 ],
 "stats": [
  {
   "label": "of the voted budget goes to Schools, the largest department",
   "value": "57.1%"
  },
  {
   "label": "departments growing faster than the 2.5% the levy may rise by",
   "value": "10 of 12"
  },
  {
   "label": "voted for FY2026 — a total with no department detail published",
   "tone": "var(--series-cost)",
   "value": "$49,374,465"
  }
 ],
 "totals": [
  {
   "fy": 2012,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 26582151.74
  },
  {
   "fy": 2013,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 27489441.0
  },
  {
   "fy": 2014,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 28177263.0
  },
  {
   "fy": 2015,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 29079384.0
  },
  {
   "fy": 2016,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 32025895.0
  },
  {
   "fy": 2017,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 33802328.0
  },
  {
   "fy": 2018,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 35690393.7
  },
  {
   "fy": 2019,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 36804408.83
  },
  {
   "fy": 2020,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 38058164.3
  },
  {
   "fy": 2021,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 38658115.02
  },
  {
   "fy": 2022,
   "status": "checked",
   "voted": 39864898.81
  },
  {
   "fy": 2023,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 41568744.92
  },
  {
   "fy": 2024,
   "status": "check failed",
   "voted": 42584048.95
  },
  {
   "fy": 2025,
   "status": "checked",
   "voted": 44024349.19
  },
  {
   "fy": 2026,
   "status": "stated in prose — no department table printed",
   "voted": 49374465.0
  }
 ],
 "voted_total": 44024349.190000005
}