02-06-2025
Chicopee budget up 6% on personnel, police costs; mayor proposes $3M to defray taxes
CHICOPEE — Mayor John L. Vieau's proposed budget for fiscal 2026 is up 6% from last year's plan, he announced Monday.
Vieau also announced plans to use $3 million from the city's fee cash account — money raised in taxes from the previous year but not spent — to defray taxes in the next year.
The budget now goes to the County Council. Cities set tax rates in the fall.
The cost of health insurance drove a $3.4 million increase in the human resources budget, Vieau said.
The police budget went up $3.4 million, as well, because of the cost of technology and to pay for increases in collective bargaining contracts.
The new school budget reflects the minimum net school spending requirement of $123 million and the cost of the lease for the school administration building of $280,200.
Additional funding coming from the Stabilization Fund for Educational Purposes.
Vieau said this budget represents a transition from pandemic-era programs like American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, often called ESSER.
'I commend our school Superintendent Dr. Marcus Ware for his difficult task of being creative about how to still deliver top-tier education to our students while also dealing with the reality that ESSER funds are gone,' Vieau said. 'Dr. Ware, myself and our mutual finance teams also recognize that the current federal administration has taken and may continue to take away funding that we have relied on in the past.'
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