Follow the money: see every change to Gloucester's budget this year

Every June, the Gloucester City Council votes on a budget. It is the city's plan for spending money for the year. But plans change. Grants come in. People give gifts to the senior center. A snowy winter costs more than anyone guessed.

When the plan changes, the City Council has to vote. Before it does, three councilors on the Budget & Finance Committee look at each request in a public meeting. They ask questions, read the paperwork and vote yes or no. The full council makes the final call.

Most people never see this part. The meetings are on weeknights. The papers can run more than 100 pages, and most are pictures of paper pages that a computer cannot search.

So we read all of them. Today we are opening Follow the money, a tracker that shows every request the committee has looked at in 2026. You can search it, sort it by kind and see where each dollar comes from and where it goes.

Why we built it

Part of our job is to help you understand how your city and town governments work. Your taxes pay for police, fire, roads, public health, the senior center and more. The Budget & Finance Committee is one of the main places where the city shows its work before money moves. When you can see that work, you can ask good questions and take part.

What is in it

The tracker covers 130 requests from 22 meeting dates since January. For each one, you can see:

• what the city asked for, and how much
• what the committee said and how it voted
• the city account the money comes from and the one it goes to, with how big that budget is
• the state law that allows it, in plain words
• links to the city's own papers, so you can check our work

We sorted every request into five groups:

• Gifts and grants (53 requests, about $2.9 million): money from the state, the federal government, people and businesses.
• Moving money the city has (19 requests, about $6.9 million): moving money from one part of the budget to another, or out of savings or last year's leftover money.
• Bills, contracts and loans (13 requests, about $6.7 million): old bills, long contracts and borrowing.
• Rules and permissions (11 requests): fees, city laws and other rules.
• Reports (24 requests): updates with no money vote.

A few things we found

The city borrowed for its waterfront and its trucks. In March, the committee voted 3 to 0 to back a $3.32 million loan to fix St. Peter's Landing and Marina. The city's planning director said a state grant of $2.6 million will help pay for it, and the city must add $720,000 of its own. In July, it backed a $2.5 million loan for school buses, trash trucks and other city vehicles. The city's chief financial officer said a loan would cost less in interest than leasing the buses.

Leftover money went into savings. Each year, the state checks the city's books and says how much money was left over. This is called free cash. In March, the committee backed putting about $3.3 million of it into savings and long term accounts, such as funds for building repairs, road paving, special education and retiree health care.

A trash strike changed the budget. In January, the committee moved about $400,000 to pay city workers' overtime during the summer 2025 strike at Republic Services, the city's trash hauler at the time. One of those overtime budgets was only $10,000. The chief financial officer said Republic agreed to cover the costs by taking money off its bills, which left extra money in the trash contract budget to move.

Snow cost more than planned. In April, the committee was told the snow and ice budget's spending limit had gone up to $6.8 million. The committee chair called it a record cost for snow removal. There was no vote. It was for information only.

What is next: Thursday, Oct. 8

The committee meets Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the first floor Council Conference Room at City Hall, 9 Dale Ave. You can also watch on Zoom. The link is on the agenda. On the list:

• gifts to the Archives ($185), Veterans Services ($2,785) and the senior center ($10,050)
• two state grants for the Police Department: $95,636.25 for 911 training and $102,983 for 911 support
• a police request to use money for its Recovery Coach Academy
• moving $10,323.57 to pay for police officers at the polls during the Sept. 1 state primary
• $12,000 for part of the city's wayfinding signs project
• a change to the city's fee rules that would remove a line requiring fee changes to be published in a local newspaper
• the city Auditor's regular report

You can see each one on the tracker now. We will add the votes once the city posts the meeting notes.

How you can take part

• Read ahead. The agenda and packet are posted before each meeting. We show what is coming up on the tracker.
• Go or watch. Meetings are open to everyone.
• Contact a councilor. The committee members are Chair Scott Memhard, Tony Gross and Patti-Ann Page. You can also write to your own ward councilor. Their emails are on the city website.
• Tell us what you see. If something in the tracker makes you curious, email [email protected].

For a look at the whole $179 million budget, see our story Gloucester's $179 million budget, line by line.