By Adam Swift
Monday night, the city council unanimously approved a Fiscal Year 2026 budget of just under $286.8 million.
Following a number of ways and means subcommittee meetings to discuss the budget with various city department heads, the council approved the figure as submitted by Mayor Patrick Keefe earlier this spring.
“I want to thank the council, I want to thank all the department heads, we tried something new this year, and I’m looking forward to feedback on ways that we can improve it,” said Ward 3 Councilor and ways and means chair Anthony Cogliandro.
This year, the council agreed to hold the ways and means budget hearings with department heads earlier in the day as a way to encourage more participation from the departments.
“It seemed to go seamless, and kudos to you for running a seamless budget process,” said Council President Marc Silvestri.
“This represents to the council that you have a balanced, responsible budget for FY26,” city finance director Richard Viscay said on presenting the budget earlier in June. “No one-time revenues are used for general fund operations and they are very reasonable revenue estimates and a spending plan we are proposing here on behalf of Mayor (Patrick) Keefe. I think these are responsible but realistic revenue requests and I encourage you to vote on the budget as submitted.”
The biggest source of revenue for the budget comes in through property taxes.
For FY26, Viscay said Revere will have an estimated tax levy of just over $120 million. This includes $2.8 million in natural Proposition 2-½ growth, as well as an estimated $3.5 million in new growth from new construction in the city, according to Viscay.
Just over three-quarters of the property tax revenue is from residential property, and the remainder is from commercial and industrial property.
Local receipts such as motor vehicle excise, hotel room, and meals taxes account for just over $20 million of the estimated revenue.
Viscay said the city has not contemplated any revenue increases for FY26, but that it does plan to do a survey of fees over the summer.
“This budget is balanced with no one-time revenues for the general fund operating budget and very reasonable revenue estimates on local receipts,” said Viscay.
The city is slated to receive about $117.5 million in state aid, with the majority of that, just over $102 million, going toward the education budget.
There are also two enterprise funds, for water and sewer as well as solid waste, that total just over $35 million for FY26, Viscay said.
The education budget is the largest slice of the overall FY26 spending, coming in at $126,284,616 for the Revere public schools. In addition, the regional vocational school district budget in Revere is $3.28 million.
The proposed public safety budget, which includes the police, fire, 911, and parking departments, has a budget of $32.8 million.
Viscay said this includes two new police officers and two new firefighters.
Monday night, the council also approved the new water and sewer rates for FY26 that will represent an increase of 9.7 percent over the FY25 rates.
Councilors Anthony Zambuto, Chris Giannino, and Ira Novoselsky voted against the water and sewer rate hikes.
