# Facilities & Grounds: what the town votes for it

One of twelve departments in the omnibus budget Town Meeting votes each spring. [All twelve together](/analysis/town-budgets).

## What it is

The buildings the town owns and the grounds around them, including the Park department’s grounds and utilities for the library. It became a department in its own right by a recorded vote — Article 7 of the 2022 Annual Town Meeting, Yes-136 No-28 — which moved town facilities out from under the DPW Director. It has filed no annual report since, so this is a department the town votes more than a million dollars a year and publishes nothing else about.

## The department

| | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| voted | $884,566 | $981,645 | $1,022,711 |
| a year | 7.5% |  |  |
| share of the budget | 2.3% |  |  |
| pull on total growth | +0.12 |  |  |

## Its lines, as printed

### FY2023

| line | label | voted |
|---|---|---:|
|  | Facilities and Buildings | — |
| 71 | Facilities & Grounds | $649,013 |
|  | Public Buildings | $235,553 |
| 72A | Additional Utilities, Library | — |
| | **total** | **$884,566** |

The page prints **$884,566** for this department. The lines above come to the same.

### FY2024

| line | label | voted |
|---|---|---:|
|  | Facilities & Buildings | — |
| 71 | Facilities & Grounds | $664,597 |
| 72 | Public Buildings | $205,553 |
|  | T2A Additional Utilities, | — |
| 72B | Park Department | $111,495 |
| | **total** | **$981,645** |

The page prints **$981,645** for this department. The lines above come to the same.

### FY2025

| line | label | voted |
|---|---|---:|
|  | Facilities and Buildings | — |
| 71 | Facilities & Grounds | $699,011 |
| 72 | Public Buildings | $206,453 |
|  | T2A Additional Utilities, Library | — |
| 72B | Park Department | $117,247 |
| | **total** | **$1,022,711** |

The page prints **$1,022,711** for this department. The lines above come to the same.

## What moved

Lines that appear in FY2023 and FY2025 under the same printed label, biggest move first.

| line | FY2023 | FY2025 | change |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| Facilities & Grounds | $649,013 | $699,011 | +$49,998 |
| Public Buildings | $235,553 | $206,453 | -$29,100 |

## 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.