Westport Finance Committee Hears Four FY27 Budgets, No Votes Taken

Finance Committee · Meeting of January 20, 2026

Westport Finance Committee reviews four FY27 budgets, with fire staffing and a broken elevator leading debate. Fire Chief Dan Baldwin told the nine-member committee Tuesday that the former town administrator approved funding for one new firefighter at $145,740, one short of the two hires Baldwin says are needed to reach four six-person shifts, while a broken station elevator carries a $16,000 repair estimate the town hopes to cover through its Liberty Mutual equipment policy rather than the reserve fund. A CPE Medicaid audit submitted in October shows a preliminary return of roughly $150,000 in new revenue, though Baldwin cautioned "I just don't know, this is our first year doing it." Recreation Director Dana Stewart reported a revolving-account balance of $139,889, with total FY25 program and rental revenue reaching $96,774.

Principal Assessor Theo Gabriel presented a 3.58 percent overall increase driven largely by a shared mapping-software cost split with the planning board, and Planning Director Michael Burris flagged a mandatory ArcGIS Pro upgrade that raises his mapping-software cost from $819 to $4,400 for two licenses.

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Source: the Finance Committee meeting of January 20, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.