By Elizabeth Barhydt
Greenwich’s fiscal year 2026-27 budget cleared its final legislative hurdle Monday night, as the Representative Town Meeting approved an approximately $542.3 million spending plan after debate over capital projects, taxes, and how the town should pay for major municipal needs.
The final vote was 170 in favor, 13 opposed, and one abstention. The RTM approved one reduction: a $100,000 cut to planning funds for Roger Sherman Baldwin Park. Members rejected larger proposed reductions to the Dorothy Hamill Skating Rink replacement and the Greenwich High School pool project, and also declined to strike a budget resolution tied to oversight of school-zone speed camera revenue.
The outcome capped a budget season that town officials described as unusually orderly after several years of sharper division. The Board of Estimate and Taxation unanimously approved the budget on March 31 after weeks of departmental review and public comment. In an earlier Greenwich Sentinel report, David Weisbrod, chair of the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation, said the board had reduced First Selectman Fred Camillo’s recommended budget by $6 million before sending the plan to the RTM.
Weisbrod said the RTM debate reflected a town government moving in a healthier direction.
“I thought the debate was excellent,” Weisbrod said. “I’m feeling really great about the vote at the RTM. I think that we are moving in a good direction in Greenwich. There’s good partnership, collaboration, teamwork, and we’re all rowing on the same team.”
“This is the culmination of a process that has been going on since the beginning of the term,” Weisbrod said. “With the RTM vote, the budget is now passed and goes into effect starting on July 1.” Joe Pellegrino, a Republican member of the BET and the board’s Republican caucus leader, said the tone of the process mattered as much as the final number. The town’s official BET assignments list Pellegrino as Republican caucus leader. “I thought we had a great budget cycle,” Pellegrino said. “All 12 members of the board set the tone in terms of civility, respect for each other, willingness to work together, to listen and to work things out.” “I think we’re supporting the services that our citizens want, and we’re clearly moving forward and supporting capital projects, which again, we’ve heard repeatedly from our citizens that they want,” Pellegrino said. “And I think we’re trying to do it in the most economic way possible.” The budget debate centered in part on taxes. Weisbrod said the town’s operating expenses increased 3.6 percent, less than the prior year’s 3.9 percent increase, while the overall town budget rose 4.1 percent because Greenwich is also catching up on capital needs that had accumulated over time. “The operating expenses of the town are being maintained well within the bounds of inflation,” Weisbrod said. “The capital expenditures are increasing a little bit, and I see them as an investment in the future of Greenwich.” “I have a tremendous concern that we need to maintain the town government and run it as efficiently as possible,” Weisbrod said. “I definitely have a concern that taxes be constrained and managed as low as possible. It’s a balance.”
Pellegrino also acknowledged the strain on taxpayers, particularly in a revaluation year. He said he is prepared to explain the mill rate to residents and defend the budget in that context.
“I take everything seriously,” Pellegrino said. “I have to justify why the mill rate is set where the mill rate is being set, and I’m comfortable with that.”
The largest and most emotional capital item was the Dorothy Hamill Skating Rink replacement. A motion from RTM members in Districts 9 and 10 would have removed $38.5 million in construction funding, leaving only architectural, engineering and final design money in place. The motion failed, 54-144-5. Opponents argued that the RTM should retain another opportunity to review final engineering, scope and costs. Supporters said the rink had already been studied, debated, revised and returned through town boards over many years. Camillo said the rink had been vetted thoroughly and that additional delay would raise costs. “The longer the delay, the more money it’s costing the taxpayers,” Camillo said. “That’s not a conservative position.” The RTM also approved the $100,000 Roger Sherman Baldwin Park reduction, leaving $150,000 for analysis related to relocating Parks and Trees operations. Public Works Commissioner James “Jim” Michel said the remaining funds would still allow that review to begin, while RTM Budget Overview Committee Chair James Waters argued that broader planning should wait until the future of the Arch Street building is clearer. Joe Kelly, a member of the BET, said the budget reflected the actual cost of maintaining services and addressing needs that could no longer be postponed. “We addressed what needed to be paid,” Kelly said.
For Weisbrod and Pellegrino, the budget’s importance extends beyond one fiscal year. Both pointed to the town’s 10year capital model as the framework for the next round of decisions.
“The work we’ve done on our capital modeling shows that if we do nothing in several years, we hit a fiscal cliff and we violate our debt policy ratios,” Weisbrod said.
He said the town has three basic tools: reviewing whether the right projects are in the queue at the right amounts, evaluating the maturity of debt on some projects, and raising additional taxes when necessary.
“There’s no magic wand on this,” Weisbrod said. “We have three levers. We will deploy every one of those levers.”
Pellegrino said the new model gives the town a better handle on long-term capital needs, but he also emphasized the importance of reviewing old appropriations and closing out projects that are no longer moving.
“We’re being meticulous about making sure that the money we’ve already taxed people for is being spent wisely,” Pellegrino said. “If it’s not, then bring it back into the general fund or bring it back into the bond fund.”
The next challenge, Pellegrino said, will be bringing the same discipline to the operating budget.
“We now need to have the same approach on the operating side and find efficiencies,” he said. “We need to put our heads together and think through how we can do a better job of providing the services that people expect at the lowest possible cost.”
He said the relationship between caucuses helped make that possible this year.
“David and I worked very closely together,” Pellegrino said. “We were able to have very frank conversations.”
By the end of the RTM meeting, the budget had survived with only one relatively modest reduction. For town officials, the vote validated both the spending plan and the process that produced it. For taxpayers, it also marked another conversation about how Greenwich pays for schools, parks, public buildings and basic services in an era of rising costs.
For now, Greenwich has a passed budget and a sharper question: how to pay for tomorrow without punishing taxpayers today.
