If you attended or watched the June 25th City Council meeting, you know we held the second reading of the FY26 budget. The budget passed, and taxes will increase.
I want to take a moment to explain why I voted against the budget and the accompanying property tax increase.
First, I want to commend the city administration. They worked hard to pull the budget together and incorporated many of the revisions requested by Council. They also followed the budget process outlined in the City’s Charter. That said, the Charter itself is outdated and lacks the detail necessary for a modern, effective budgeting process.
As it stands, Council receives the proposed budget in mid-April and is expected to approve or reject it before the fiscal year begins on July 1st. That’s less than two months to review a multi-million-dollar budget. For comparison, when I worked at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), it often took four to five months to complete a cost analysis on proposals that were a fraction of this scale.
We don’t give this process the time or scrutiny it deserves. We need more time. More detail. More justification. More negotiation. And more creative thinking to generate new revenue sources so that the burden doesn’t always fall back on taxpayers.
Are we in a tough spot? Absolutely. Years of insufficient long-term planning brought us here. Now we’re faced with urgent needs in transportation, infrastructure, education, and basic quality of life – plus we need the personnel to address them.
When I reviewed the budget, I evaluated line items through the lens of what adds real value to our residents’ lives; what is necessary versus what feels more like a luxury. Several items stood out to me:
- Overtime: $2.6M
- New positions: $1.1M
- Dues, subscriptions, memberships: $40K
- Conferences and training: $190K
- Council expenses (mostly tickets to local events): $35K
- Sister Cities program (travel and hosting): $40K
These are areas where I advocated for either cuts or deeper scrutiny. I didn’t believe they all reflected a clear return on investment for our residents.
In the end, I could not in good conscience vote for a budget that included luxury items, lacked adequate justification for others, and ultimately raised taxes.
To say the process needs reform is an understatement.
Stephanie Smyth
Newport City Councilor
