Town Meeting Approves $439.9 Million Budget

Town Meeting · Meeting of May 27, 2026

Brookline Town Meeting approved a $439.9 million fiscal 2027 budget and a raft of transparency and compensation measures. Town Meeting Member Harry Friedman blasted the town's "Casella Five" ethics investigation as "a nothing burger," while Town Administrator Chas Carey defended the probe, saying he was "not afraid to follow the rules that have been set for me." Members voted 229-9 to approve $4,072,345 in Community Preservation Act grants, including $1,178,630 for roof repairs at the Trustman Apartments and $800,000 toward restoring the United Parish Church steeple. They also voted 137-85 to raise Select Board stipends to $4,999 and 120-111 to create the first-ever School Committee stipends by fiscal 2030.

A new bylaw, passed 229-5, requires the town clerk to publicly log all public records requests and summaries of responses.

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Source: the Town Meeting meeting of May 27, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.