Hingham Finance Committee Recommends Nine FY27 Budgets Totaling Over $40 Million

HINGHAM — February 5, 2026 — Hingham Finance Committee advances nine FY27 department budgets while flagging public safety staffing strains and a new hospital cost. The committee recommended budgets totaling more than $40 million across dispatch, police, fire, animal control, the South Shore Country Club, assessing, harbormaster, and water and sewer operations at its February 5 meeting. Police Chief Steve Jones and Finance Director Katie Harnett cautioned that the police department's apparent 12.5 percent personal services increase — to $7,925,344 — masks a true year-over-year rise of roughly 3.5 percent, a distortion created by a retroactively settled collective bargaining agreement recorded in a separate Article 4 appropriation last year. The fire department's $9,139,262 budget carries a similar distortion and includes a new paramedic stipend that Jones said "pushed us over the top" in mediation — a step he described as unprecedented in the department's recent history. Fire Chief Steve Murphy also warned that South Shore Hospital will begin charging for linen services July 1 at an estimated $25,000 annually, with further charges potentially to follow, adding open-ended cost pressure to an ambulance operation that already costs over $6 million to run against $2 million to $2.2 million in annual billing revenue.