PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council last week preliminarily approved 11 department budgets in under 90 minutes on the first day of fiscal year 2025 hearings.

Mayor Peter Marchetti has proposed a $216,155,210 operating budget, a 5 percent increase from the previous year.  After the council supported a petition for a level-funded budget earlier this year, the mayor asked each department to come up with a level-funded and a level-service-funded spending plan.

"The budget you have in front of you this evening is a responsible budget that provides a balance between a level service and a level-funded budget that kept increases to a minimum while keeping services that met the community's expectations," he said.

Marchetti outlined four major budget drivers: More than $3 million in contractual salaries for city and school workers; a $1.5 million increase in health insurance to $30.5 million; a more than  $887,000 increase in retirement to nearly $17.4 million; and almost $1.1 million in debt service increases.

"These increases total over $6 million," he said. "To cover these obligations, the city and School Committee had to make reductions to be within limits of what we can raise through taxes."

The city expects to earn about $115 million in property taxes in FY25 and raise the remaining amount through state aid and local receipts. The budget proposal also includes a $2.5 million appropriation from free cash to offset the tax rate and an $18.5 million appropriation from the water and sewer enterprise had been applied to the revenue stream.

"Our government is not immune to rising costs to impact each of us every day," Marchetti said. "Many of our neighbors in surrounding communities are also facing increases in their budgets due to the same factors."

He pointed to other Berkshire communities' budgets, including a 3.5 percent increase in Adams and a 12 percent increase in Great Barrington. Pittsfield rests in the middle at a 5.4 percent increase.