WORCESTER—City Manager Eric Batista on Tuesday night unleashed his proposed $947.9 million Fiscal Year 2026 operating budget to the city council, calling it a plan centered on “strengthening core city services” and maintaining readiness in the face of economic uncertainty.
The budget marks a 6.2% increase over FY2025 and kicks off a six-week review process that includes public hearings throughout May and June.
“This is my second budget as city manager,” Batista told councilors. “Our mission as a city is to deliver exceptional public services and municipal operations that are rooted in equity, innovation and integrity and centered on people. And to do that, we need to strengthen our core services, strengthen our foundation of municipal government so we can have impact in the community as a whole.”
Education again makes up the largest share of the budget, at $574.4 million—or roughly 61% of total spending—with 71% of that figure funded by state Chapter 70 aid. “From FY25 to FY26, the overall city budget has increased 6 percent while the education budget has increased 7.7 percent,” Batista noted.
Public safety and infrastructure are also top priorities, including funding for police and fire contracts, HVAC upgrades at police headquarters, rat control, and a major $19.9 million allocation for pavement improvements. “There’s been a lot of discussion in the community about infrastructure,” Batista said.
Batista emphasized that the city’s approach to compensation is about addressing structural inequities among municipal staff—not issuing blanket raises.
“We are addressing our core managers doing the day-to-day work in our city… trying to create a differential between them and the cabinet,” he said in a presentation earlier that day to reporters.
The budget includes salary adjustments for 188 positions and a 2% cost-of-living increase for employees covered by settled or current union agreements.
“In addition to that, we’re looking at investments in people, and that’s one of the biggest components that we want to address in this budget,” he told the city council. “To be able to impact our community, to be able to impact day to day services, we have to support our people who spend a significant amount of time providing their efforts to serve our community.”
Looking ahead, Batista warned of potential instability in state and federal revenues, and said the city is building in buffers. “We anticipate risks from the federal government or even state government in regards to budgets,” he said, pointing to a $5 million contingency fund set aside for “union agreements and economic unpredictability.”
CFO Timothy McGourthy echoed that caution when asked about school funding obligations. Councilor Khrystian King raised concerns about meeting the city’s net school spending requirements. McGourthy replied, “For FY25 we do expect to meet net school spending. We coordinated with the Worcester Public Schools to confirm the number… and we believe we’ll reach it.” But for FY26, he agreed with King that it’s a “moving target.”
“It’s not just the revenues we provide but then how those revenues are spent,” said McGourthy. “We need to work with the schools to figure out what their actual budget might look like and their actual costs to determine where we’ll end up.”
The proposed budget now moves to the Department of Administration and Finance, with hearings set for May 13, May 20, May 27, and June 10. A final vote is expected by the end of June, ahead of the July 1 start to the new fiscal year.
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