Bellingham Finance Committee Opens FY27 Budget Hearings, Flags Public Safety Cuts

BELLINGHAM — March 31, 2026 — Bellingham Finance Committee opens FY27 public-safety budget hearings with warnings of thinner service margins. The committee heard Monday from IT Director Karen Dutille, whose $827,000 IT budget the town's insurer has certified as meeting cybersecurity standards; a fire chief presenting a $5,165,862 Fire Department budget — up 1.08 percent overall but absorbing a 15.3 percent, roughly $108,000 cut to operations — who warned that Station 1 in South Bellingham has seen an 18.3 percent call volume increase over four years and that a lieutenant responded to a cardiac arrest alone for six minutes in November; and a police chief who disclosed that a $100,000 salary cushion was eliminated, leaving 34 sworn officers with no contingency buffer and one retirement vacancy that will go unfilled into early FY27. The snow-and-ice account is running approximately $400,000 over its $283,000 budget, requiring a free-cash transfer warrant article. The committee also raised, without resolving, whether it will formally recommend the proposed Proposition 2½ school override, with additional budget sessions set for April 6 and April 13.