Councilors Raise Property Taxes and Cut Services to Police, Seniors, and Summer Children’s Programs
June 27, 2025
Lawrence Mayor Brian Depena’s 2025-2026 proposed city budget will automatically go into effect on July 1st without City Council input or approval because the city council failed to take action on the budget within the legally required 45 days.
According to the Lawrence City Charter, the city council has two primary functions: pass budgets and approve policies (ordinances).
The mayor submitted his original budget proposal on May 2, 2025 meaning that the council needed to take action by June 16, 2025.
Instead councilors spent that 45 days criticizing the mayor’s budget numbers, complaining about the mayor’s motives, railing against proposed expenditures such as raises and contracts, but never actually took action to pass, reject, or reduce the city budget as required by law.
AMENDED BUDGET SUBMISSIONS DO NOT RESET THE CLOCK!
Prior to the city council meeting on June 16th, the mayor submitted an amended budget with some of the reductions that the council had asked for but they failed to take a vote that night, instead continuing the meeting to June 18th.
By failing to act within the 45 day period the initial budget proposal automatically goes into effect as the official city budget from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026.
Councilors asked the city attorney to issue a legal opinion stating that they believed they had additional time because the mayor submitted an amended budget.
“Under M.G.L ch. 44 section 32 it states if the council fails to take action with respect to any amount recommended in the annual budget either by approving, reducing, or rejecting same, within 45 days of receipt of the budget such amount without any action of the councilors becomes part of the appropriation for the year and available for the purposes specified.”
Houten’s ruling also stated that there was no state law or charter provision that extended the 45 day period simply because the mayor submitted an amended budget.
A source in the mayor’s office said the council was really good at playing politics but not that good at “doing their job.”
“These five councilors all want to be mayor, but they can’t even do their own job, which is to pass a budget. All they had to do was vote. They could have voted to reject the budget if they wanted to, but they couldn’t even do that. They complain about all the spending, they complain about every line item, why didn’t they just vote no?”
COUNCIL RAISES TAXES,
CUTS PROGRAMS
BY REJECTING BUDGET TRANSFERS
With the city now at the end of the 2024-2025 budget, several transfers still needed to be made to balance the current budget to avoid a tax hike and reduction in services before the next budget takes effect.
Five of the nine councilors, however voted against all of the proposed transfers in a move that the mayor’s office says was done to punish the mayor “but instead punished the taxpayers and children of the city” one source in the mayor’s office told the Valley Patriot.
Voting to raise taxes and cut services to police, summer kids programs, the Veterans Memorial Stadium, mandated spending from lawsuits and legal services, and other needed services were councilors:
Stephanie Infante
Wendy Luzon
Jeovanny Rodriguez
Vivian Marmol
Fidelina Santigao
Lawrence District “F” Councilor Marc Laplante, advocated for the transfers cautioning his colleagues as they voted no on each item to balance the current budget.
“The people we work for, their property taxes will be going up another $50 at least, plus the $240 we already voted on in new growth if we don’t vote for this, we send the signal to Boston that we are doing things by default once again as we just did with the budget”
Laplante called the council’s actions “Maddening”.
In addition, the Council failed to adopt a provision to pay over a million dollars in snow and sanding bills for the 2024-2025 winter, and failed to set aside the required $1,071,278 for the Stabilization Reserve (Rainy Day Fund) required by state law.
They also cut emergency funding for the police department, the Public Library, the Council on Aging, Veterans Memorial Stadium, the Bellevue Cemetery, and the DPW recycling program.
PLAYING POLITICS A “BETRAYAL OF TRUST”
After the meeting Councilor Gregory DelRosario reached out to the Valley Patriot saying he was angry that his colleagues took their frustration with the mayor out on the kids in the city.
“It’s a shame,” DelRosario said. “They didn’t do their jobs and now they are taking it out on the people who elected us, it really makes no sense. They’re not hurting the mayor they’re hurting the residents of the city and they don’t really seem to care.”
In a press release this morning, DelRosario added: “What happened is a betrayal of our community. They voted to cut summer programs for our kids, services for our seniors, and raised taxes on working families. This wasn’t about the budget – it was about petty politics and personal agendas. I’m angry, and I will not stay silent while our people are the ones who suffer.”
At Large Councilor Celina Reyes said that she was saddened for the people in the city who won’t get the services they need, especially the seniors. “These programs are not just numbers on a budget—they impact real people: our youth, our seniors, our educators, our families.”
Councilor Ana Levy echoed those concerns saying: “All these decisions were made for political and personal reasons and did not take into account the needs of our residents.”
For their part, the five councilors who voted to raise taxes and cut services (Infante, Rodriguez, Luzon, Santiago, and Marmol) offered no explanation for their vote.