Greenfield People's Budget

09/01/2026

Please vote today in the primary! Polls are open until 8pm. This will be a low turn out election so your vote counts! You can still vote in the democratic primary if you're unenrolled/independent or registered as a third party.

GPB encourages you to support the following candidates:

🗳️Lora Wondolowski for State Rep for First Franklin district (Greenfield Precincts 5-8, Ashfield, Bernardston, Buckland, Charlemont, Colrain, Conway, Deerfield, Hawley, Heath, Leverett, Leyden, Monroe, Montague, Rowe, Shelburne, Sunderland, Whately)

🗳️Tara Jacobs for Governor's Council (incumbent)

🗳️Ed Markey for Senate (incumbent)

These candidates have garnered endorsements from groups like Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution and Progressive Mass and will uphold progressive values.

05/11/2026

Visuals for the FY27 Budget - just in case you don't feel like clicking our blog link!

05/11/2026

Hello, we posted a visual overview of the proposed FY27 budget! Please take a look

Greenfield Mayor’s Budget FY2027 A Visual Overview Fiscal Year 2027: July 1st 2026 — July 1st 2027 Total City BudgetFY26-FY27 ChangeFY26-27 Percent$70,024,736+$2,099,862+3.1% Smaller divisions below $1M not shown above include:  Financial Administration, Human Services, Culture & Recreation, Ex...

05/10/2026

Hey all! Please note these important meetings for this year's budget season! The PUBLIC SAFETY budget will be discussed at Ways & Means this Monday, we need to show up and say we want to FUND KIDS NOT COPS! Below are some talking points.

1️⃣The Mayor’s FY27 budget ELIMINATES the rec room staff position. Many families depend on the rec room for after school and weekend activities.
2️⃣The recreation budget decreased 12.46% due to cutting the youth center coordinator for the middle school after school program. Why is a small department that Greenfield families depend on taking a big hit?
3️⃣Why is the Greenfield Police Dept (GPD) increasing 4.3% while schools are funded below level service? Crime is lower in Greenfield than the national average by 38%. Investing in our kids- giving them opportunities to engage in meaningful activities with peers IS preventative public safety.
4️⃣The GPS budget asked for a 7.46% increase ($1.77 mil), with the main drivers as contractual salary obligations (51%), Special Education Out-of-District Tuition (35%) and Special Education Transportation Services (15%). Instead, the mayor’s budget increased the budget by only $450k, which is below level service and will require significant cuts.
5️⃣The police budget increased at a higher rate (4.3%) than both the city budget on average (3.1%) and the school budget (1.9%). On top of the $171k police increase, it’s actually a 4.5% increase due to $10k in expenses previously billed via police now budgeted under Dispatch and Central Maintenance.
6️⃣Many items in the GPD budget are inflated, for example the police chief and deputy chief are some of the highest paid city employees. The starting salary of a patrol officer is higher than the starting salary of a teacher graduating with a masters. Also, salary lines don’t add up under scrutiny – the salaries for the top step patrol officers, lieutenants and sergeants appear inflated and don't match the union agreements.
7️⃣The GPD budget has large expense items listed that exceed other departments. For example, why does the GPD need 20k for uniforms, then another 40k for a clothing allowance? Other departments have much much smaller clothing allowances per person. GPD also has 30k set aside for meetings, seminars, dues and memberships, which vastly exceeds any other department.