This year’s city budget process has been a mess, and the proposed budget will seriously hurt Medford Public Schools, the new Medford Public Library, and all of our city departments. Even worse, the Mayor has said that next year will be just as bad if we don’t change the status quo.

We need you to stand up for a better future for Medford at the upcoming City Council Meeting on Tuesday, June 28th at 7PM. Please come to City Hall and speak up for options to improve our budget situation and share the impact of this bad budget on you, your family, and our whole community. 

The City Council will be taking a final vote on the Mayor’s FY23 proposed budget on 6/28. The Council will be looking at multiple options to improve the budget, including reallocation of existing funds, requesting the Mayor restore cuts made to her budget since June 2nd, and exploring all options to raise revenue to fund our public schools and essential city services. 

How You Can Help

  • Top priority: Attend June 28th Council Meeting in-person and speak up
  • If you can’t attend in person, join on Zoom and raise your hand to speak. You can RSVP here to get reminder emails with the link, or head to the ORM community calendar, which also has the link.
  • Send written testimony to the Council by Monday if you’re not available on June 28th
  • Email the Mayor requesting that she allocate additional funds to stop service cuts

We are asking that anyone who is able please attend in person. We need residents to speak up during public participation to talk about how they are personally affected by this budget, such as:

  • Confusion and frustration due to the lack of transparency in the FY23 budget process
  • Impact of reduced school funding on students, families, educators and staff
  • Crumbling roads and broken sidewalks, no plan to fix them, and barebones DPW budget
  • Library programming cuts, staffing issues, and cuts to hours
  • Little to no funding for housing affordability or providing housing support to residents
  • Why we need new revenue now to stop more budget cuts in FY24 and beyond

Ask the Mayor to Support a Better Budget

Below is a template email to send to our city leadership. Feel free to add more details about why the issues with our city budget are so important to you.

Dear Mayor Lungo-Koehn,

Our community needs are not being met in the proposed FY23 city budget. We know that some of the issues require long-term planning, but we can also find immediate solutions to address service reductions in the FY23 and FY24 city budget. 

Right now, the city’s plan is to “do more with less” for at least the next two budgets in FY23 and FY24. Medford cannot afford that.

These barebones budgets and reductions in services will have a harmful impact on me, my family, and our entire Medford community.

I ask you to please do the following for the benefit of our city’s future:

  • Allocate additional funds in the FY23 budget, as you initially proposed, to support our public schools and city departments
  • Issue a public report by July 14th explaining your proposed alternative and indicating why a Proposition 2.5 override is not necessary to maintain services in FY23 and FY24 and to end the structural deficit
  • Support a Proposition 2.5 override proposal for November 2022 and submit it to the state by the August 3rd deadline if the City Council votes to initiate the override process
  • Develop a comprehensive budget needs assessment process and create a revenue generation plan with a clear timeline to meet those budget needs

Thank you for your work and service to our community. Residents know that an open, transparent, and collaborative approach that includes the Mayor’s Office, City Council, School Committee, and all Medford residents can provide the results we all want to see.

We need to act now for Medford’s future.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Thank you for taking action to support our city and its future!