ORDER RE CAPITAL BUDGET LIFECYCLE RECONCILIATION PRIOR TO FY27 APPROVAL

The City of Cambridge is entering the FY27 capital budget cycle in a constrained fiscal environment characterized by growing tax-supported debt service relative to the operating budget and increasing pressure to prioritize capital commitments; and

Funding for major capital initiatives is frequently dispersed across multiple fiscal years, program names, and budget categories, such that the total authorized cost of a given initiative is not readily visible in any single adopted budget document; and

Without a clear picture of what has already been approved, borrowed, spent, and still owed on existing projects, the City Council cannot make fully informed decisions about whether to take on new spending commitments; and

Good fiscal governance requires that the Council have access to a clear and consolidated understanding of existing capital authorizations, bond obligations, expenditures, and estimated costs to completion before layering new commitments on top of prior-year decisions; and

Departments are currently being asked to identify savings and limit growth, making lifecycle transparency for capital projects an important prerequisite to informed fiscal stewardship; now therefore be it

That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to produce and deliver to the City Council, prior to the adoption of the FY27 Capital Budget, a report for all major capital initiatives at or above $15,000,000 for the period of FY21 to FY26, presenting at minimum:

(1) Total capital appropriated to date, by fiscal year and project name; (2) Bond authorizations and stated purposes; (3) Bonds issued to date; (4) Expenditures to date; (5) Committed but unspent balances; (6) Current estimated cost to completion; and (7) Explicit reconciliation where scope descriptions or project naming conventions have changed across fiscal years; and be it further

That report be made available to the Finance Committee for review and discussion at the appropriate stage of the FY27 budget process; and be it further

That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to report back to the City Council on this matter in a timely manner.