Katherine Duceman, Dedham Finance & Warrant Committee

03/06/2026

I often hear that residents want more transparency into how budget decisions are made. Our annual All-Day Budget Hearing is exactly that: a comprehensive, detailed, public walk-through of where money goes, what’s driving costs, and the tradeoffs we’re facing.

And when I say "all day"... I mean ALL. DAY. We'll be meeting 8:30am-4:30pm. We’ll start with the Town Manager’s FY27 Budget Message and then hear from departments across town. Feel free to pop in to Town Hall or tune in on Zoom for some or all of the session.

10/06/2025

The Finance and Warrant Committee will hold public hearings on all 2025 Fall Town Meeting warrant articles on Tuesday, October 7th at 6pm (except for the Planning Board articles). This meeting will start with a joint meeting with the Capital Expenditures Committee, to discuss article 4, on capital improvement projects. (You can find all of the articles here: https://www.dedham-ma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/26386/638932124033100000 )

The Committee's deliberations will then take place on Thursday, October 16th at 6:30pm.

Both sessions are open to the public, and you can attend in person in the O'Brien room at Town Hall or on Zoom. Recordings of both meetings will be available on demand on DedhamTV, usually the morning after the meeting.

I also want to acknowledge something that's a bit different about how I typically engage on this page: as a member of the Finance and Warrant Committee, I won’t be taking a public stance on any of the warrant articles on here. The committee's role is to review each article objectively and provide our recommendations to Town Meeting, based on facts and financial implications.

That said, I’m always happy to help residents understand what each article means or where to find more information. Please feel free to reach out if you have questions.

09/12/2025

The 2025 Fall Annual Town Meeting Warrant was released today - read it here:

08/19/2025

Dedham: I wanted to share a quick update on my service to the town.

I recently accepted an appointment to Dedham's Finance and Warrant Committee ("FinCom"), and I was sworn in today by Town Clerk Paul Munchbach. As part of that decision, I needed to resign from my elected Town Meeting seat and my ex officio appointment to the School Building Rehabilitation Committee. I've deeply valued my time on both of these bodies so this was not a decision I made lightly.

For those unfamiliar with FinCom, this is a committee charged with reviewing the town’s budgets and warrant articles and making recommendations to Town Meeting. FinCom is responsible for carefully analyzing the Town budget and the School Department budget, considering both short-term needs and long-term financial sustainability, and making recommendations to Town Meeting.

Today Dedham is at a critical financial junction: we face a multi-year structural deficit, rising costs, and very significant capital needs -- especially around our school buildings. Addressing these challenges will require difficult tradeoffs. I am joining FinCom because I want to help the town navigate this next phase with honesty, transparency, respect, collaboration, fiscal discipline, and long-term thinking.

I am very grateful to those who helped talk me through this big decision -- thank you for your time and encouragement.

I’ll continue to share updates on this page, and I welcome and appreciate your thoughts and questions along the way.

05/30/2025

MONDAY, JUNE 2: The School Committee will hold a planning session related to the rehabilitation of Dedham schools. I encourage you to attend in person (Town Hall, 6:30pm), especially since there is no Zoom arranged.

05/22/2025

Spring Town Meeting lasted nearly 5 hours on Monday night, and we used most of the time to debate items in the operating and capital budgets.

Thank you to all who followed along with the substitute motion I co-sponsored with Drew Pepoli, Jason Brogan and Josh Donati to delay some of the line items in the capital budget in an attempt to stave off a Prop 2 ½ override. The motion ultimately did not pass, but I think it sparked an valuable conversation about tradeoffs.

We hear again and again that residents are concerned about high taxes, and many of the elected officials in the room ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility. But what this vote showed (and I say this without judgement) is that when presented with specific, tangible cuts, most representatives are not comfortable with the sacrifices required to meaningfully lower spending.

That said, here are some highlights of what Town Meeting approved on Monday night:

• We approved the town’s operating budget (Article 3) and capital budget (Article 4), almost exactly matching the Finance and Warrant Committee’s recommendations. Town Meeting voted to re-fund $100K to the Parks and Recreation budget, which had been drastically cut in FinCom’s recommendation, out of our “free cash” fund. (For the record, I voted against this measure because I do not agree with the concept of funding operating costs with free cash – especially as we face a fiscal cliff and our amount of free cash available is rapidly shrinking.) More on the budget below.

• We approved Stephen Acosta’s substitute motion on Article 24, effectively adding two voting members to Dedham’s School Building Rehabilitation Committee – one Planning Board member and one caretaker of a child attending the affected school.

• We unanimously approved the establishment of a nine-member Senior Property Tax Relief Policy Study Committee (Article 26) to evaluate ways to help seniors manage rising property taxes and deliver recommendations to the Select Board and Town Meeting.

The overall budget approved by Town Meeting is approximately $142 million. This will result in a projected 3.7% tax increase for Dedham residents. For an average single family home, that works out to about an $351 annual increase.

However, this budget represents a decline in level service from previous years. Among the changes are school personnel reductions, reductions in DPS extra and co-curricular activities and clubs, and reductions in police and fire overtime.

I remain very concerned about the financial future of our town. Our excess levy is shrinking, and when it runs out, we will be faced with a Proposition 2 ½ override and/or significant cuts to services.

A Prop 2 ½ override comes with serious consequences. Aside from creating yet another thing for our town to be divided on, it would be a PERMANENT increase in our taxy levy limit. (Read: taxes go up and they stay up. Families pay hundreds of dollars more per year just to maintain what we already have.)

This isn’t a problem that’s unique to Dedham. Costs are rising faster than allowable tax revenue for many MA towns. Here are some of the examples I gave on the floor: Natick passed a $7 million operating budget override in March. In Milton, voters just approved a $9.5 million override request to solve their budget deficit, which is their second override in ten years. Last month Stoneham put a $14.6 million override to voters, who voted it down, and now the town is facing a significant budget shortfall that will require ruthless cuts to the town’s public schools, library, senior center, public works and public safety.

Once an override is passed, I believe it will be significantly more challenging for Dedham to invest in important things like school rehabilitation and infrastructure improvements. These kinds of projects will be much harder for taxpayers to fund if we’re passing a Prop 2 ½ override just to tread water on our operating expenses.

Going forward, we will continue facing difficult financial realities. I hope we can continue to have honest conversations about what tradeoffs we are actually willing to make, and what kind of a long-term path we want for Dedham.

Thanks for following along!

(P.S. Thoughts on this new format? I'm trying to make it easier to search old content on my page. Let me know!)

05/14/2025

Like many towns in Massachusetts, Dedham is on the edge of a financial cliff.

A group of Town Meeting members – Josh Donati, Drew Pepoli, Jason Brogan, and myself – are collaborating on substitute motions that aim to reduce pressure on taxpayers and delay a Proposition 2 ½ override.

First: I know what some of you are thinking, and yes, we are unlikely allies. This is not a group of people who usually work together or are known for getting along. We’ve disagreed privately and very publicly. But we are putting that aside – not because we’ve resolved all of our differences, but because the town’s long-term financial future is more important than political divides or who wins an argument online.

Now, what exactly are we doing? We are proposing itemized budget reductions to help delay a Proposition 2 ½ override (in layman’s terms, that’s a permanent property tax increase).

We presented substitute motions for Article 3 (operating budget) and Article 4 (capital budget) on Monday at mini Town Meeting (that’s the informal info session that takes place the week before Town Meeting). We heard loud feedback on our proposed Article 3 substitute motion and we’re taking that input on board to refine our approach, with the goal of avoiding personnel reductions.

For our Article 4 substitute motion, we are proposing to reduce the amount recommended by the Finance & Warrant Committee by $1,085,000 by removing the following line items from this year’s budget:
• Line 3: Fire – Department Vehicles / Deputy Chief Car ($90,000)
• Line 12: Public Works – Loader ($375,000)
• Line 14: Public Works – Columbarium ($120,000)
• Line 22: Town Facilities – Video Surveillance and Access Control System ($500,000)

We did not include School Department budget reductions in this effort because the school budget request has already been cut significantly by the Finance and Warrant Committee, from a 7.72% increase (which is below level service) down to a 3.97% increase (which is even more below level service). And for several years in a row already, the School Department has had to eliminate educators and administrators due to budget strain.

To be clear, we are presenting a menu of options – not a “take-it-or-leave-it” package of cuts. Town Meeting members will be able to pick and choose what changes they support, voting line by line. Support one change? Great. More than one? Even better. None at all? That’s okay too. Our goal is to make sure there are more choices on the table for Town Meeting members.

A Prop 2½ override will permanently raise the town’s tax levy limit. That means taxes don’t just go up one year — they stay higher every year after. For many households, especially seniors on fixed incomes or young families already stretched thin, this can be a lasting financial burden.

Today’s economy is particularly uncertain. Inflation, home values, and interest rates are all volatile. Even a one or two year Prop 2 ½ delay could help the town secure additional revenue through development, state aid, PILOT agreements, or other sources, making an override unnecessary.

If you want to learn more or be part of the conversation, feel free to reach out or comment below. Thanks for staying informed.

05/05/2025

The School Building Rehabilitation Committee will meet tonight at 6:30 to discuss the formal end to the Oakdale MSBA project and discuss Warrant Article 24 (to add additional members to the SBRC, which FinCom has recommend indefinitely postponing), among other items. The full agenda and info to tune in can be found here:

Town calendar for public meetings and events held in Dedham, MA.

04/12/2025

Today’s Election Day! Polls are open until 8pm. Good luck candidates!

Dedham: early voting begins tomorrow for our local election! If you're looking for information on candidates, I recommend visiting www.dedham.info, a new site that shares statements submitted by candidates for all town-wide offices and Town Meeting seats.

I'm particularly excited to cast my ballot for the following Precinct 2 Town Meeting members, some of which have also been endorsed by the Dedham Coalition for Equity and Inclusion:
- Nathaniel Piper, #1 on the ballot
- Elizabeth Benjamin-Alcayaga, #2
- Robert Gauvin, #3
- Caroline O'Shea, #4
- Laura Brinkmann Dedham Town Meeting P2, #5
- Bryan Plummer, Dedham ATWG, #6
- Brian Eaton, #7
- Sunshine Millea, #11
- Adenike John, #13
- Donato Kava, #17

You can preview the ballot here (see pages 3 & 4 for the Precinct 2 ballot): https://www.dedham-ma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/25124/638775649384300000

04/11/2025

Dedham: as you head to the polls this Saturday, April 12, I encourage you to cast your votes for candidates who will work productively with all members, and serve our town with transparency, accessibility and integrity. In this week’s paper I share a few names of first-time candidates who are worth considering.

04/04/2025

Dedham: early voting begins tomorrow for our local election! If you're looking for information on candidates, I recommend visiting www.dedham.info, a new site that shares statements submitted by candidates for all town-wide offices and Town Meeting seats.

I'm particularly excited to cast my ballot for the following Precinct 2 Town Meeting members, some of which have also been endorsed by the Dedham Coalition for Equity and Inclusion:
- Nathaniel Piper, #1 on the ballot
- Elizabeth Benjamin-Alcayaga, #2
- Robert Gauvin, #3
- Caroline O'Shea, #4
- Laura Brinkmann Dedham Town Meeting P2, #5
- Bryan Plummer, Dedham ATWG, #6
- Brian Eaton, #7
- Sunshine Millea, #11
- Adenike John, #13
- Donato Kava, #17

You can preview the ballot here (see pages 3 & 4 for the Precinct 2 ballot): https://www.dedham-ma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/25124/638775649384300000