Advisory committee chair outlines Brookline’s budget constraints and proposed three‑year override

Dennis Dowy, chair of the Town of Brookline Advisory Committee and an elected town meeting member from Precinct 3, said the town’s budget is an annual process shaped by department proposals, the town administrator and the advisory committee’s review.

“The budget is an annual process and each year influences the next,” Dowy said. “Even though you’re voting on a budget for a single year, you also are often voting for trends over time.”

Dowy told interviewer Ben Dworth that Brookline’s total budget is roughly $400 million and that about 60 percent of that sum funds the school side while roughly 40 percent covers town services such as public safety, public works, parks and administrative departments. “There are a lot of schools and a lot of teachers and a lot of expenses that are made in providing the high quality Brookline education,” he said.

He said a substantial share of the budget is also devoted to retiree pension obligations, which the town must fund to meet ongoing liabilities. Those fixed obligations, Dowy said, add to pressure on discretionary spending and maintenance budgets.

On revenue, Dowy said residential property taxes supply the vast majority of Brookline’s revenues, with a much smaller share coming from commercial property taxes and state aid. He said the town’s dense residential character limits near‑term opportunities to expand the commercial tax base despite planning and development efforts.

Dowy explained that Massachusetts’ Proposition 2½ restricts the annual growth of the property tax levy to 2.5 percent (plus any amount from new growth) and that when cost pressures such as inflation exceed that cap the town faces a structural shortfall. “If the overall inflation rate … has increased by more than 2.5 percent, the town’s not going to take in enough money next year to make the payments that are going to become due,” he said.

To address current and near‑term budget pressures — including rising maintenance needs for recently built facilities such as Pierce School and increases in funding for programs like the council on aging and veterans’ services — Dowy said the town is asking voters to approve a multi‑year override. “An override means for some period of time we are going to increase the rate at which the town can increase the levy,” he said. The proposal described in the interview is for a three‑year increase above the 2.5 percent base, after which the higher baseline would remain.

The discussion in the interview focused on explaining how the budget is developed, the limits on levy growth, and why leaders are proposing the temporary override rather than cutting services immediately. The interview did not record a formal vote or describe a scheduled override ballot date.