Mulvaney-Stanak: Progress made on filling Burlington budget gap of $13 million

by Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak Yesterday marked the first 45 days of my mayoral administration. My team and I have been working diligently to balance the FY25 budget, and I’m proud to share that we have achieved that goal.  

On Tuesday, I was joined by CAO Katherine Schad at a press conference where we announced that we have identified cost savings and additional revenue that allows us to close the $13 million budget gap while also making strategic investments in community safety.  

I want to thank department heads, City union leaders, and my community budget advisors who all leaned in to share creative solutions for the City to reduce costs and generate revenue.  

I want to share some important budget updates as we continue with department presentations this month.  

As you may recall, the City has engaged a consultant to conduct an Operational Efficiency Study. This study will make recommendations that relate to longer term structural changes, and they will not help close the FY25 budget gap. However, these recommendations will help inform our budget planning for future fiscal years, beginning in FY26. 

I asked Department Heads to identify savings that could be achieved by leaving some positions vacant through FY25 that would not present major disruption to current City services. I have decided to proceed with this strategy for one year to give us more time to review our entire budget, assess programs for essential services, and properly evaluate the Operational Efficiency Study.  

As I mentioned in my April email, we also received recommendations from a User Fee Study, some of which will be implemented in FY25. I have asked the relevant departments to implement fee increases where recommended. Some programs have significant gaps between the fees charged and the actual cost of operation. In those cases, I have asked for reasonable increases in FY25 while we work to build an equitable, citywide fee policy. 

Tentative Budget Gap Solutions 

Through a combination of the cost-saving and revenue-generating solutions offered by Department Heads, along with modest tax increases for residential property taxpayers and businesses, we identified nearly $14M to close the gap. This includes using $0.02 of the $0.03 public safety tax increase approved by voters in March to support both the police and fire departments, increasing the hotel tax from 2% to 4%, and increasing the gross receipts tax by 0.5%, which will sunset after one year. Additionally, our dedicated retirement and debt service taxes will be raised as required by the City Charter.  

Here is a summary of the solutions to close the gap 

For a more detailed breakdown of the proposed budget solutions, please see the FY25 Budget Update to the Board of Finance. 

Community Safety Investments for FY25 

13.8 million dollars in new revenue and savings will also allow us to make strategic investments to address our acute community safety needs. 

Last Tuesday, we convened 20 city department leaders to begin to identify immediate and strategic cross-department efforts to improve safety in our city. We discussed a range of issues including security needs at the library, closing gaps in coordination between departments, and addressing deficiencies in our mental health systems. This conversation was exciting, as the group identified several areas for improvement and creative solutions. We will be reviewing these recommendations and sharing a final list of community safety investments by the end of May. 

Over the next month, I will continue to work in coordination with City leaders to finalize the FY25 budget. 

Next Steps

• Budget Work Session w/ City Council – Monday, May 20th  
• Department Budget Presentations – Continuing 5/22 and 5/29 
• Final budget to City Council - Early June

Meeting Agendas

I will share additional updates before the final budget is delivered to the City Council in June. 

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