The city projects a gap between what it will collect and what it will spend in fiscal year 2028. Move the sliders up to 100% either way from the projection and watch the dial. This is an educational tool, not a budget forecast: it simplifies a complicated budget, so read the ground rules to understand its limits before drawing conclusions.
This is an educational tool. It’s built to help you understand the trade-offs in Northampton’s budget, not to predict it. Using it well means understanding its limits.
This model assumes no override. Voters do not pass a Proposition 2½ override, so the city’s fiscal stability plan is no longer in effect and none of its planned measures are counted here.
This is a drastically simplified model, for illustration only. It doesn’t account for many policy choices the city could make, such as changes to how free cash is allocated or how debt service is structured. The numbers, though, are real: every projection, revenue figure and expense comes from the city’s own planning sheet.
Add a one-time cash amount to the FY28 budget. Maybe a winning lottery ticket is given to the city, or Great Aunt Sophie leaves a surprise in her will.
This doesn’t fix the structural problem. A windfall comes in once, in FY28, and goes directly to supporting the operating budget. Any surplus it creates moves in its entirety to the next fiscal year, bypassing the Fiscal Stability Fund. The money doesn’t repeat, while spending keeps growing faster than revenue.
New growth is property tax revenue from newly built or expanded buildings. Under Proposition 2½ it is one of the few ways the city can raise its tax levy beyond the automatic 2.5% increase without an override. The slider starts at the city’s projection of about $875,000, its preliminary estimate for FY27. Slide it right for more growth, or left for less.
This one repeats. New growth stays in the tax base, so unlike a windfall, a change here comes back every year and grows 2.5% a year. But it takes a lot of new construction to raise even a little revenue.
$875,000 a year of new growth takes about $64.0 million of new construction and improvements added in a single year, at $13.67 per $1,000. For scale, the city added $933,517 of new growth in FY26.
The council sets each year’s rate in the fall, so change it here to test other rates. $13.67 is Northampton’s FY26 single tax rate. The city added $933,517 of new growth in FY26 and $993,237 in FY25, and its FY26 average single-family home was valued at $570,686. All from the city’s January 2026 financial presentation.
Free cash is money left over when a year closes. It’s measured against that year’s budget and certified the following year. One-twelfth of it goes into the Fiscal Stability Fund, a single savings account that starts FY28 at $541,809 and can be drawn down to close a gap. Whatever you draw is gone in later years.
Free cash is a sign of sound management, not waste. The state Department of Revenue recommends that cities generate it every year. A healthy amount shows the city is budgeting conservatively and spending carefully, and it gives the city money for repairs, reserves and emergencies without raising taxes.
Set on its own, because it shouldn’t be assumed to reach 5%. FY26 revenues beat projections by only 0.8%, so FY26 free cash will be low, and FY27 is likely to be below the guideline as well. Starts at 3%.
⚠️ Below the state guideline. At 3%, FY27 free cash adds only $340,563 to the fund in FY28.
Starts at 5%, the low end of the state Department of Revenue’s guideline.
⚠️ Below the state guideline. At 5%, the city generates less free cash than DOR recommends, which means smaller deposits and less money for projects like school building repairs and sidewalks.
| Year | Deposit | Available | Drawn | Left over |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY28 | $340,563 | $882,372 | $0 | $882,372 |
| FY29 | $590,657 | $1,473,030 | $0 | $1,473,030 |
| FY30 | $614,464 | $2,087,493 | $0 | $2,087,493 |
| FY31 | $640,779 | $2,728,272 | $0 | $2,728,272 |
| FY32 | $667,753 | $3,396,026 | $0 | $3,396,026 |
Each year’s deposit is 1/12 of the free cash from the year before: FY28 uses FY27’s budget, FY29 uses your FY28 budget, and so on through FY32. If revenue increases or spending cuts create a surplus, 1/12 of that surplus is added to the next year’s deposit. Windfall surpluses bypass the fund and carry forward in full.
FY28 deficit
–$3.39M
The budget is $3,394,693 short.
How your FY28 choices carry into the following years, through FY32, the last year in the city’s projections. Your FY28 amounts become the starting point, and each line then grows by the city’s own projected inflation rate for that line, such as 4% a year for schools and 8.88% for health insurance. Those rates aren’t set by this tool, and your sliders don’t change them. A surplus created by a windfall carries forward in full to the next year. Any other surplus, from revenue increases or spending cuts, doesn’t: 1/12 of it goes into the Fiscal Stability Fund and the rest supports annual city needs and stabilization funds. The dashed line on each dial marks the city’s projection. Every dial runs from a $12M deficit to a $12M surplus, so you can compare years directly. On a phone, FY29 through FY32 appear in the bar at the top of the screen once you scroll past the FY28 dial.
These amounts aren’t adjustable in this model.
These amounts aren’t adjustable in this model.
Close the FY28 gap and your changes will be listed here.
Your changes also keep FY29 through FY32 out of deficit.