Page 4 - 2023 Annual Report

T H E Y E A R IN R E V IE W

L O C AL G O VE R N M E N T

CITY OF WORCESTER, SOURCES OF FY24 REVENUE
The Bureau continued to release reports that dive deep into
issues of local government. Breaking Down the Budget: City of
Worcester‘s Fiscal Year 2024 is a continuation of the Bureau’s
annual report on the City of Worcester’s budget. Each year on July
1, Massachusetts cities and towns must implement a new budget.
Worcester’s Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) budget took effect on July
1, 2023. Municipal budgets must balance—expenditures cannot
exceed revenues. The budget process forces municipalities to
confront the challenge of fixed costs, including debt service
and pensions, while deciding among priorities like education,
public safety, economic development, and public services. The
City’s revenues for FY24 are shown on this page; in total, the
City budgets $847.7 million in FY24. A large portion of City
spending is in education—59.9% of this year’s total budget is
earmarked for education. However, the source of more than 70%
of the City’s revenue for spending on education is from state aid. City of Worcester Expenditure Centers
Accordingly, this year the Bureau began a new, separate, annual Total Education $507,436,102
project to examine and explain the budget of the Worcester
Public Schools. This report, Paying For a Public Education: An Total City Services $183,708,699
Examination of the FY24 Worcester Public Schools’ Budget, Total Fixed Costs $156,583,278
seeks to understand the more than $552 million budget of
the Worcester Public Schools for FY24, explaining to the lay Total Expenditures FY24 $847,728,079
reader the ins and outs of how exactly, public education is paid Source: City of Worcester, FY24 Budget
for. Just like the City, the Worcester Public Schools must have
a budget in place by July 1 each year; and, like the City, WPS
has its own “fixed costs,” namely, a minimum it must spend on
educating students, determined annually by the Massachusetts WORCESTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS, SOURCES OF FY24 REVENUE
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation
Budget formula. Each district in the state is allocated some state
aid to fund that education, and municipalities provide the rest.
In Worcester’s Public Schools, state aid for education made
up 60.4% of its total budget (when including both general and
grant revenues) or 72.1% of its general revenue budget alone.
Finally, Paying for a Public Education compared Worcester to its
neighbors and to other Gateway Cities on spending above and
beyond what is required by the Commonwealth.

SCAN FOR MORE:

Breaking Down Paying for a Public
the Budget FY24 Education FY24 Worcester Public Schools Expenditure Centers
Total Employees* $453,830,483
Total Supplies and Services $85,200,037
Total Capital Equipment $12,974,253
Total Expenditures FY24 $552,004,773

Source: Worcester Public Schools, FY24 Budget
(*Employees includes salaries, overtime, and fringe benefits)

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