By Lorna Garey
With the city facing an annual structural deficit of roughly $8 million, voters are being asked to approve Malden’s first-ever Proposition 2 ½ tax override. About 85 residents gathered at the Beebe school in Ward 3 on Thursday night to question officials on the city’s financial position, possible effects of cuts and the drivers behind the fiscal challenges that led to an override request.
The special election on March 31, with early and mail-in voting available, will present voters with two separate questions, 1A and 1B. Question 1A asks for a $5.4 million increase to stabilize the budget, which the city says would result in a one-time base tax increase of $353 for the average, $666,317, single-family home next fiscal year and require 10 to 20 layoffs. Question 1B asks for an $8.2 million increase, which would result in an average $533 base increase and no planned staff cuts. If both pass, only 1B will take effect. If both fail, the city is looking at slashing around 60 jobs.
Malden used its final $3.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and $5.2 million from free cash to balance the FY26 budget, which is available online.
Property owners can check projected increases with an online calculator.
City employees will pay more for their insurance under a program change that will save $3 million, and Mayor Gary Christenson has committed to building some $2 million in cuts into the still evolving FY27 city budget that will be issued “in a few months,” but despite questions, he did not share specific details of where those savings would come from.
“One of the challenges of municipal budgeting is we’re truly trying to change a tire in a moving car,” said Malden’s Chief Strategy Officer Ron Hogan, citing unpredictable aid, insurance costs and new information from the state revealing a $1.6 million shortfall in school funding from the prior year.
Residents also heard from Brian Tilley, president of the Malden Police Patrolman’s Association; Cait Quinn, president of the Malden Public Library employees union; and David Ball, president of the Malden Firefighters Union.
Here are five themes that emerged from residents’ questions at the Beebe forum.
1. Is a flawed state education funding formula driving the deficit, or is it Malden’s development choices?
Mayor Gary Christenson and Councilor at Large Carey McDonald both pointed to the Massachusetts Chapter 70 education funding formula as the primary reason for the city’s financial straits. The state dictates how much must be spent to educate students and mandates the minimum amount municipalities must pay from local budgets. This required local contribution has been rising at more than twice the rate of the 2.5% property tax cap, forcing Malden to spend $20 million more in local funds on schools than it did in 2019, said McDonald.
William Spadafora, who leads the Keep Malden Affordable ballot question committee, asked whether the Chapter 70 pain the city is feeling is a result of permitting large, high-value apartment buildings, and whether any further multifamily development won’t exacerbate the problem.
Chapter 70 heavily weights property values when determining how much the state will kick in to a municipality for schools. Expensive multi-unit apartment buildings can dramatically inflate a city’s Equalized Property Valuation, or EQV, formula, which represents the total assessed value of all taxable property — even if those apartments don’t house many students and thus don’t bring in per-pupil state funds to offset.
Hogan agreed that the Chapter 70 formula is “absolutely punitive” to density and that the new multifamily developments the state has encouraged to address a housing shortage actually hurt Malden’s financial standing under the formula. In fact, when Hogan and the mayor met with the Lieutenant Governor, one of the key points made was that the state asked communities like Malden to step up and meet the demand for additional housing, partially via MBTA Communities zoning, but doing so hurts these cities financially. Spadafora added that should a large new housing development be built as a result of MBTA-C rezoning, the city could be further penalized.
Almost half of Malden’s revenue is required by the state to go to the schools. That’s a reality that’s affecting municipalities across Massachusetts, which have for years called for changes to Chapter 70. The catch is that urban, rural and suburban communities complain for different, competing reasons. The state held a series of public listening sessions regarding local contributions and is expected to release a report on potential fixes this summer. This presentation by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees helps explain how state funding for education works.
2. Will job cuts mainly affect police, fire, and public services including the library and DPW, or the will Malden Public Schools also see impacts?
If the override fails, the city is preparing for a 15% reduction in non-school staffing, which equates to approximately 60 positions across various departments. The mock-up of cuts presented at the forum includes the loss of 15 police officers, 15 firefighters, nine public works employees and three librarians. Union leaders spoke at the meeting to outline the impact these cuts would have.
Ball of the Malden Firefighters Union warned that losing 15 firefighters would force the city to take an engine out of service, significantly impacting response times, while Tilley addressed the potential cuts by sharing his own personal experience of being laid off during a previous city budget crisis. He stated that Malden Police Chief Glenn Cronin informed him the department could lose up to 15 support staff, superior officers or patrol officers, a number he called “devastating.”
Quinn, president of the Malden Public Library employees union, said that because of the recent loss of one position, the city issued almost 250 fewer library cards year over year for children and had to curtail tours, outreach and assistance like helping residents fill out forms.
“There isn’t any fat to cut from us,” she said. “In 1980 when Prop 2 1/2 was passed, the library closed all of its branches to meet the funding requirements.”
While school spending levels are mandated by the state, the schools may see the loss of MPD resource officers, said Mayor Gary Christenson, with funding for crossing guards and recreational programs also in question as these items are not part of required spending.
No one from the Malden Education Association spoke. In regard to whether school committee members will resolve to support an override, that item was on the agenda for the March 3 meeting. However, Ward 8 member Sharyn Rose-Zeiberg said she had received the text only that afternoon, so Vice-Chair Jennifer Spadafora made a motion to table based on the text of the resolution not being distributed to the committee in time for members to read and digest the language.
Ward 6 member Peter Piazza, who along with Ward 7’s Keith Bernard sponsored the resolution, said he emailed the text on Feb. 27 at 8:45 a.m. There was no explanation for why it took three business days to be distributed to the full committee, and Piazza added that based on Open Meeting Law rules, he chose not to follow up individually with other members.
On March 5, the city posted a special meeting to consider the resolution, initiated by Christenson, who serves as chair. That meeting is scheduled for tonight, March 9, and will have a Teams component. Members of the public are welcome to attend online or in person. Also on March 5, Spadafora resigned her position as vice-chair.
3. Why are employee positions targeted and not other operational spending?
One questioner asked why cuts would be made via layoffs rather than trimming non-personnel costs.
Ranaghan said many large operating line items, such as health insurance and pensions, are what are termed “uncontrollables” in that they’re driven by required spending levels, and there’s limited budget wiggle room in many nondiscretionary items such as utility bills and contracts. He did cite past savings, such as moving to Teams from Zoom and from running a full energy audit of city buildings.
Still, he said, the bulk of city spending is on personnel vs. operating, both discretionary and nondiscretionary, line items, with the percentages varying widely by department. For Malden Fire, as an example, personnel line items total about $14.78 million, or 92.9%, of a $15.91 million budget.
“When 90 plus percent of the budget is people, most of your expenses are going to come from those line items,” he said.
Rough analysis of the FY26 budget shows Malden Public Schools spends 92% of its budget on salaries or mandates such as special ed, leaving about 8% for flexible spending like books or computers. The city budget includes the health/pension costs for the school department, so roughly 52% is allocated to nondiscretionary outlays, 38% for salaries and 10% for other discretionary items.
4. Why can’t we just spend down reserves while we work to add new revenue and make cuts?
A common question is why the city doesn’t simply use its reserves, or “free cash,” to cover the budget gap. Ranaghan explained that Malden currently holds $21.8 million in reserves, which is 10% of the city’s budget. However, the national Government Finance Officers Association, which issues best practices for governmental finance officials, recommends maintaining at least two months of operating revenues, which would be $39 million for Malden.
Panelists said Malden’s practice is that reserves should be used for one-time capital projects, like street reconstruction, lead line removal and park renovations, rather than ongoing operating costs. And, panelists said the city has worked to minimize borrowing given current high interest rates, paying as we go for projects versus raising funds through bond issues.
Christenson noted that current and past use of reserves for operating expenses have drained funds that should go toward infrastructure, and if the current trend continues, the city’s reserves would be entirely depleted within two years.
5. How can we avoid being back in this position?
Several attendees asked whether the city might ask for another override in a few years. McDonald’s answer: “Absolutely not.” They added that preparing this override was a massive undertaking, and it would be disrespectful to voters and the commitments the city has made to simply ask for another one in short order.
Christenson agreed with McDonald’s sentiment but highlighted the extreme unpredictability of the city’s financial situation, saying Malden is facing “death by 1,000 cuts.” He pointed to sudden, unexpected reductions in state funding for summer jobs, the loss of revenue from Uber and Lyft rides and the zeroing out of promised gaming mitigation money when the state, for the second year, announced in December that it will not distribute the gaming revenue that was negotiated to offset the local impacts of casinos. Malden’s share of that missing mitigation funding for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 is more than $1.1 million.
Because the city is operating in “an unprecedented environment” where leaders lack certainty on funding, the Mayor cautioned that he could not definitively promise what the future holds, stating, “We don’t know right now.”
Council President Amanda Linehan discussed the role of new development. Bringing in new growth is one of the very few tools Malden has to raise revenue, and Linehan pointed out that new developments — such as the recently opened for-profit Tufts Behavioral Health facility at the former Malden Hospital site — generate ongoing annual tax revenue, but also provide a valuable one-time “bonus” bump to the city’s tax revenue in the year they open.
To maximize new growth’s revenue potential, Linehan highlighted two ongoing efforts:
Short-term targeted growth: The city council and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development have formed a committee to identify underutilized corridors and parcels in the city. The goal is to use zoning and other policy levers to bring in short-term development within the next one to two fiscal years to quickly generate critical revenue.
Long-term plan: Malden is also using grant funding to look holistically at the city to identify untapped growth opportunities in areas like the squares and main corridors. These efforts are enhanced by Malden’s recent designation as a Transformative Development Initiative district.
When asked about tapping into new commercial tax base drivers like a long-delayed marijuana dispensary, Linehan said the council is taking up the zoning right away.
“I think most of our council, unfortunately, was not here when the old zoning was written,” she said. “Our task now is having to start from scratch. We certainly share your sentiment of wanting to make a path forward immediately.”
Next steps
The next Q&A sessions are at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 16 at the Ferryway School and Wednesday, March 25 at the Linden STEAM Academy.
Voters can find a sample ballot and additional voting information at the city clerk’s informational website. Early voting and vote by mail are available. On March 31, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and voters will cast ballots at their usual polling places.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article said the text of the School Committee resolution was sent on Feb. 22. Piazza contacted Neighborhood View and clarified that he sent the resolution on Feb. 27, not Feb. 22. Unfortunately the audio on the video was unclear. The article has been updated accordingly.
I asked what is identified as question 3 in this story. This story doesn’t reflect accurately my questions, the Mayor’s three one-word answers, and then Councilor McDonald changing the subject to talk about a prior question. To my recollection, Mr. Ranaghan did not respond to my questions. Further, no one answered my question related to what % of the budget represents personnel costs. If your story is an amalgamation of other things you heard and research you did yourself I understand. I just don’t want people to misunderstand what happened at this meeting. The Mayor who promised to bring to the public $2 mil in cuts admitted he has not done that and stated that he would not do that BEFORE the vote in the override. Further, when another citizen pointed out he didn’t answer my question the Mayor told that person curtly to “File a FOIA!” My opinion is that Neighborhood View/UMA is simply being the Administration’s and Yes For Malden’s voice. Granted, I guess you don’t have to give a balanced presentation… that’s your right.
Ranaghan’s “90% plus percent” statement came toward the end of the session.