Cambridge City Budget Facing ‘Inflection Point,’ Officials Say

Cambridge officials agree that the city’s rising budget poses a major problem. They just need to figure out what to do.

Over the past five years, the city budget has swelled by 7.1 percent annually, hitting nearly $1 billion for fiscal year 2025. As fears of austerity and budget cuts have dawned on Cambridge officials, the City Council and School Committee met Monday to discuss the city’s shaky fiscal position.

“We are facing an inflection point,” Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 said at the meeting.

Much of the conversation focused on Cambridge’s educational services, which — at $268.25 million this year — were the highest line item in the city’s expenses. Since the two bodies’ last joint roundtable in February, members of both have braced for smaller school budget increases.

Nevertheless, Huang assured committee members that many existing projects — including the newly-launched universal preschool program, an extended school day, and in-progress building renovations — are not on the chopping block.

“We are not in the moment of fiscal crisis where we’re saying we need to make cuts. A lot of what we’re walking through is how we ensure that we don’t end up in that situation,” Huang said.

Still, deliberately slowed budget growth is unprecedented in recent Cambridge history.

“In my 20 years, we’ve never had this conversation,” Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern said, “because we haven’t been in this situation in a very long time.”

The Council voted to raise property taxes by 7.3 percent on residential property and 10.1 percent on commercial property earlier this month, but this meeting signaled that the raises come in the context of what will become a broader shift.

Assistant City Manager for Fiscal Affairs Claire B. Spinner said that high budget growth and projected declines in commercial tax revenue will demand smaller spending increases and higher taxes.

In the meantime, officials at the meeting said they will take a careful approach to approving new projects and assess whether to phase out old programs that have become less effective.

“All of us have great ideas, and all of us have people advocating for certain things in the city, but at least for the near term, I think we have to be very cautious,” said Councilor Paul F. Toner, who co-chairs the finance committee.

Councilor Burhan Azeem advocated for an alternative to tax raises and budget cuts: growth. He argued that Cambridge should focus on boosting tax revenue by allowing for greater residential and commercial development.

City officials are already moving forward on proposals to eliminate single-family zoning citywide and dramatically upzone Central Square, though both initiatives are likely to face significant local resistance.

But the group did not emerge with any firm consensus on how to address the city’s impending financial woes, instead walking away with a commitment to more public discussions.

The roundtable will reconvene to discuss the universal preschool program at an undetermined date, according to Mayor E. Denise Simmons, while the Council’s finance committee will also meet on Dec. 11 to discuss city-wide public investments and budgeting priorities.

Councilor Patty M. Nolan ’80, who co-chairs the finance committee with Toner, said the committee’s meeting will be a “tough discussion.”

“If we all had a magic wand, we would fund all of them, and we will not be able to,” she said. “All of them are worthy, worthy goals.”

—Staff writer Benjamin Isaac can be reached at benjamin.isaac@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @benjaminisaac_1.

—Staff writer Darcy G Lin can be reached at darcy.lin@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.

—Staff writer Emily T. Schwartz can be reached at emily.schwartz@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @EmilySchwartz37.