Wayland Finance Committee approves $99.8 million FY24 budget

WAYLAND — February 27, 2023 — Wayland Finance Committee approves $99.8 million FY24 budget with 6.5 percent tax hike. The committee voted 6-0 to recommend the operating budget, a 7.66 percent increase, after Finance Director Brian Keveny reported that $1.1 million in additional state aid and $200,000 in higher indirect recoveries had cut the projected tax increase from nearly 10 percent. A $5.46 million capital budget passed 4-1-1, and a separate $532,349 OPEB article passed 5-1, with $500,000 funded from taxation to preserve the town's AAA Moody's rating. Members tabled Article GG, the MWRA admission application, after the Board of Public Works submitted a substantial rewrite hours before the meeting; member Kelly proposed reframing the article around three "gates" of future approvals. Health insurance, budgeted at $9.3 million on an assumed 12 percent rate increase, remains the largest unsettled variable.