Rockport's $41.6 million budget, line by line

How Rockport decides its budget

A town budget is a one-year spending plan. Rockport's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, so "fiscal 2027" started this summer and ends next June.

Voters approve the budget at the annual town meeting, held this year on April 11 at Rockport High School. Before that, the Capital Improvement Planning Committee reviews requests for equipment and repairs, the Select Board and Finance Committee present the budget at a public hearing, held this year Feb. 14, and the Finance Committee reviews it and makes recommendations. The elected School Committee adopts the school budget and asks town meeting for the town's share.

Most spending is in the general fund, voted as Article 5. Water and sewer are separate enterprise funds paid for by customers' bills. The town's voters booklet, published before town meeting, lists every line for three years and is the source for most figures here.

State law limits how much the town can collect in property taxes. Under Proposition 2½, the total can grow 2.5% a year plus new construction unless voters approve more. No override was on the ballot; the May 19 town election had no tax questions.

Where the money goes

Benefits and insurance pay for pensions, health insurance, Medicare taxes and property insurance for both town and school employees. The booklet assigns $4,948,007 of that to the schools.

Public works rises 17.6%, mostly because it now pays the schools' fuel, power and vehicle costs. The largest jump is in a single operating line for public property, up $588,400; the booklet does not say which lines absorbed the school costs.

Where the money comes from

Property taxes provide about 71% of general fund revenue. The town projects $42.8 million in revenue, $1.21 million more than it plans to spend; the Finance Committee says the difference "is earmarked for overlay and state assessments," meaning money set aside for tax abatements and charges the state bills the town.

Two new fees appear this year. Starting in July, the town collects a fee from owners of short-term rentals such as Airbnb and Vacasa. With more than 360 units registered with the state, it expects about $500,000 a year. "Without this new fee, the 10.89% increase in health care costs would have required cuts elsewhere in the budget," the Finance Committee wrote. The booklet does not give the fee's rate.

The public works department also began charging $10 to dispose of a truckload of brush. The town spent more than $49,000 last year to haul brush away, according to the booklet.

What went up and what went down

Health insurance rises from $5,774,467 to $6,403,306. Together with pensions, it makes up about 22.75% of the general fund, according to the Finance Committee. The pension assessment from the Essex Regional Retirement System rises 4.9%, to $3,066,215. The committee says the town expects those payments to keep rising about 8% a year, compounded, until the system is fully funded in 2040.

The committee also described a late surprise: "Last year the Town was informed that its contribution obligations to the Essex Retirement System and to Essex Tech each had increased significantly." It said the two increases arriving together "required, literally overnight, recalibration of many budget elements."

Essex Tech, the regional vocational school, rises 44%, to $384,703. At town meeting, a town official attributed it to new debt costs spread among member towns and a state correction to the district's minimum spending.

Raises. A labor reserve for pay raises not yet settled when the budget was written rises from $5,660 to $223,500. The budget motion lets the town accountant move that money into departments' salary lines, so some departments may look flat in the booklet even when their staff get raises.

Debt. Interest on short-term borrowing rises from $15,000 to $205,380; the booklet does not explain the increase. Interest on older bonds falls $65,368. Property and liability insurance rises $111,184, or 14.5%.

Schools

The School Committee approved a $17,728,329 budget Feb. 4. The town appropriates $14,627,894 and public works covers $558,100; state special education reimbursement, school choice tuition from other districts, grants and fees cover the rest.

The Finance Committee calls the town appropriation "an increase of 3.0% over the adjusted FY26 town appropriation." It says most of the increase comes from a 3.04% state increase in approved out-of-district special education tuition, a 10% increase in consortium out-of-district special education tuition and negotiated raises.

The schools have been shrinking their budget for three years. "In FY24, FY25, and FY26, RPS reduced its budget by $343K, $1 million, and $1.4 million respectively, and reduced staffing by 32 positions," the committee wrote. "RPS is now staffed appropriately for our current enrollment." Enrollment was 629 in January, not counting 20 students placed out of district, according to the district's budget book.

At town meeting, the superintendent said there would be no loss in services from moving the fuel, power and vehicle costs to public works.

How Rockport's schools compare

State law gives town meeting one vote on the schools: the total. The elected School Committee decides how to spend it. Rockport spends far more than the state requires. In fiscal 2025 it spent $18.4 million that counts toward the state's minimum for school spending, 231% of the $8 million minimum. The average Massachusetts district spent 126%. Rockport also spent $28,232 per student in its own schools in 2024, the most on Cape Ann. The state average was $22,414.

About 1 in 4 students came from other towns through school choice last school year, most of them from Gloucester, and their tuition helps pay for the schools. In spring 2026, 37% of Rockport students in grades 3 to 8 met or beat expectations in reading on the state's MCAS tests, compared with 40% statewide. Of the class of 2025, 91.3% graduated in four years, compared with 89.3% statewide.

Water and sewer

The water budget rises 25%, to $3,749,976, and the sewer budget rises 22%, to $3,400,076. Most of the increase is debt payments: water's more than double, from $470,292 to $977,707, and sewer's rise from $437,117 to $748,977. The Finance Committee says these costs "are covered entirely by water and sewer user fees" and "do not affect the tax rate." (Its report gives the increases as 23.82% and 21.42%; the booklet's tables show 25.25% and 21.63%.)

The committee says fiscal 2027 is "year two of a ten-year plan designed to address the Town's aging infrastructure." It also noted the town was again under mandatory water restrictions because of drought. At town meeting, a speaker for the town said a rate study is under way and that rate increases to cover these budgets would likely be 5% to 8%.

Capital projects and borrowing

Town meeting approved $8.06 million in capital spending in April: $2.93 million in the general fund, including $1.5 million borrowed for a fire truck, and $2.5 million in borrowing each for water and wastewater improvements. Most smaller items were paid from free cash.

On Sept. 14, the fall town meeting approved borrowing $1.8 million more for the Town Hall renovation, 163 to 18, more than the two-thirds required. An official said direct funding for the project totals about $3.6 million, counting earlier borrowing and federal pandemic relief money, and closer to $3.9 million with grants and other capital money. Select Board Chair Paul Murphy said the building has not had a significant renovation since it opened in 1956.

The fall meeting also shifted $64,060 between existing fiscal 2027 accounts, about half of it from public works vehicle and equipment replacement accounts into vehicle repairs, without changing the budget's total. It approved nine Community Preservation grants totaling about $1.04 million, including $238,000 for the Affordable Housing Trust and $200,000 for Thacher Island's south tower.

The town's savings

Town meeting added $150,000 each to the general and capital stabilization funds and $100,000 to the retiree health trust. The town's long-term promise of retiree health care, called OPEB, was valued at $40.5 million in June 2025. The town has an AA+ credit rating from S&P, according to the Finance Committee.

Search every line item

The voters booklet lists about 180 lines across town departments, schools, water and sewer. All of them are below. Search for a word such as "overtime," "snow" or "health," or open a department to see each line.

From request to tax bill

Rockport and its neighbors

Rockport had the lowest tax rate of the nine North Shore communities below last year, and its average single-family bill, $8,548, was among the lowest.

What comes next

• This fall's tax rate. The assessors will set fiscal 2027 values, the Select Board will hold a classification hearing and the state will approve the rate.
• Water and sewer rates. A rate study is under way; at town meeting, increases of 5% to 8% were discussed to cover these budgets.
• Fiscal 2028. Capital requests start in December, followed by the winter budget hearing and the spring town meeting. The Finance Committee warned that "future years will present new challenges," including uncertain federal and state aid.

How to take part

Town budget series: Gloucester (Oct. 5), Essex (Oct. 8), Manchester (Oct. 19), Rockport (this story).

How we did this

Cape Ann Current read the April 11 and Sept. 14 town meeting voters booklets and recaps, the Rockport Public Schools budget book, Select Board, Finance Committee and capital committee agendas and town meeting video from 1623 Studios, and compared figures with state Division of Local Services data. Statements made at town meeting come from the video's automatic captions and were not checked against an official transcript. We could not access Select Board and Finance Committee minutes when we reported this story. This story was produced with the help of AI tools and checked against the documents listed below. If you see an error, tell us at [email protected].