Page 2 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, May 1, 2026 Mayor Christenson outlines proposed FY27 municipal budget in transmittal letter to Malden City Council Following is the text of Malden Mayor Gary Christenson’s formal letter to the members of the City Council accompanying the proposed FY27 municipal appropriation. Dear Members of the City Council, 50 Established 1978 Mid-grade Regular 4.12 4.34 5.24 $4.47 Full Service ULS $4.57 9 Order online at angelosoil.com Kerosene Now Available! I present the Fiscal Year 2027 budget for your review and consideration. With this budget, we begin a multi-year effort to reduce expenses to bring them in line with available revenues. I have covered in prior year budget messages the challenges that we face that are unique to Malden so I won’t repeat them here. Those, combined with challenges that are common in many other cities, find us in a situation that is forcing a change in how we deliver services. As a largely developed urban city with limited highway access and a heavy focus on residential use, the opportunities for large-scale transformational development are virtually non-existent and, as such, we are overly reliant upon property tax revenue growth to fund ongoing cost increases. That fact, when combined with the unparalleled pressure applied to Malden from the inequities in the school funding formula (Chapter 70), leave us with few options. We know our residents are feeling the same pressure in their daily lives. A level service budget, defined as continuing current service levels and meeting contractual and expected obligations, yielded an almost $10 million structural deficit. It is entirely consistent with the scope of the problem we shared with the City Council and the public during discussions on an override. As a result, this budget proposes cuts totaling approximately $4.5 million. To fund the gap, I am proposing that $5.2 million be used from our reserves. It is not enough to put us on a sustainable path but it is a start. We will need to continue to work together to solve this ongoing challenge in whatever way possible, which will include additional cuts in future years if nothing changes. The proposed cuts are impactful and have an underlying theme of doing more with less. While I leaned heavily toward cuts of open positions that we have purposefully not filled the past few months in anticipation of this exercise, the reality is that with this budget, there are people losing jobs and as Mayor, the impact on personnel and service levels is not to be understated. That will leave us having to get creative to deliver services, and there’s little doubt our residents will feel some of that impact. However, I’ve attempted to balance many competing needs while prioritizing things that remain important to me even in tough times. It’s important to keep in mind that exercises that involve reductions in personnel have expenses associated with the first year before you reach the full-time run rate savings. Things like unemployment costs, payouts for earned time and the need for transition periods are difficult to predict. While we have made some allowances for those in this budget, it’s likely that future appropriations may be necessary to find costs associated with the proposed reductions. It is also important to note that with most employees being subject to collective bargaining agreements, there is a process that we must follow to comply with labor laws. Those conversations have begun and will continue in parallel with the City Council budget deliberations. Additionally, there will be required ordinance updates consistent with the changes proposed as part of this budget. Those will likely need to follow immediately after passage. [In his letter, the Mayor outlined specific proposed cuts of approximately 32 full-time positions — including 10 existing public safety positions and three open, unfilled police officer positions — and 17 full-time positions across city government. See Budget Story, Page MAYOR | SEE PAGE 9 FLEET CARD Check Out Our LOW PRICES!
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