Finance Committee opens FY25 budget review, defers all votes to next week

SUDBURY -- March 4, 2024, Sudbury Finance Committee opens FY25 budget, rebuffs member's bid to cut $236,000 from town staff lines. Co-Chair Michael Ferrari led a six-member working session March 4 through the $121.6 million operating budget, deferring votes to next week with three members absent. Member Henry P. Sorett proposed eliminating a deputy building inspector, halving an assistant inspector's salary, deleting planning and conservation staff lines, and trimming the police-detail budget by $25,000, calling it "taking a scalpel" to "bureaucratic excess." The five other members present opposed every cut. Member Susan said she would not act "based on no real data," objecting to language that "sounds a lot like maligning" town employees, while member Ryan Lynch said cuts "don't actually solve any of the structural problems." Members signaled general support for the $55.8 million SPS line and Sudbury's sub-2 percent share increase at Lincoln-Sudbury.