LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The town is looking at a proposed $4.3 percent budget increase for fiscal 2025.

The Finance Committee last month approved an $11,846,607 spending plan without changes and will vote on the annual town meeting warrant articles next week. It was accepted by the Select Board on Monday.

Town Administrator Gina Dario told the board that things are moving along quicker than last year in terms of the budget and the ATM warrant, which was helped by the absence of a special town meeting.

"We worked right through April, we did present the budget to the Finance Committee at their last meeting. They did approve the budget in its totality without changes," she said.

"We had a couple of department heads come to their meetings and we've certainly tried to be very transparent, accessible, and responsive to the Finance Committee when there have been questions about certain budget lines so they're very engaged."

The budget includes a Mount Greylock Regional School District assessment increase of 3.38 percent and a McCann Technical School increase of 7.33 percent. The net increase in education costs is $237,129 in FY25, less than the $271,478 increase in FY24.  

The Town Hall proposed a 3 percent cost-of-living increase for nonunion staff, which is said to be consistent with other towns. The budget also reflects updated union contracts with the Highway and Police departments.

"We have a full Town Hall staff at the moment which is which is great," Dario said. "I mean, I feel like it's kind of a quicksand at times with positions becoming vacant but we are with the collector position returned to full time really able to get ourselves, I think, grounded in the work that we have."