Introduction

This document is an introduction to the past capital and operating budgets for Greenwich. This document is meant to guide and inform RTM members on how and where dollars are being allocated during the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

The web version here is meant for members to examine and explore the data with the goal of making members more informed during district and committee meetings. It is based on the submitted First Selectman budget for 24-25 as well as historical actual approved budgets.

Where the “Explore the Data” tables, feel free to use the search and filter parameters at the top of the tables.

Please consider this a “hard copy” document. While it is meant for exploration, any updates to the file will not filter down to this version. If there are updates to be made, we will share a new file link with you. We are currently working on moving this document to the web so that you can log in and recive all the latest updates on demand.



Capital and Operating Overview

Actual Dollar Spend (in MM)

budget tot2021 tot2022 tot2023 tot2024 tot2025
Capital_totals 483.4 659.8 708.7 1158.6 1271.9
Operating_totals 5150.5 5092.3 5296.9 5472.4 5600.6

YOY Percent Change

budget YOY_22 YOY_23 YOY_24 YOY_25 avg median std_dev
Capital_totals 0.365 0.074 0.635 0.098 0.29300 0.2315 0.2633970
Operating_totals -0.011 0.040 0.033 0.023 0.02125 0.0280 0.0226035





Deep Dive into Capital Spending

If we include inflation in the year on year change to the budgets, we can better see the line up between inflation and Greenwich budgets. The graph overlay shows the three items - Capital, Operating, and Inflation aligned.

budget YOY_22 YOY_23 YOY_24 YOY_25
Capital_totals 0.3650000 0.0740000 0.6350000 0.0980000
Operating_totals -0.0110000 0.0400000 0.0330000 0.0230000
Inflation 0.0744615 0.0566923 0.0330769 0.0328333

Source: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/ Inflation (Sept-August 2020-2024 ytd, April 2024 forward held constant at 3.2%)



Dollar Spend per Capital Department

When we look at the nominal dollars, the volumes appear to be reasonable - adding funds here and there.

Percent Change on Capital Projects

The fluctaction in the percent change in allocation demonstrates the amount of variability in departments, which impacts how groups can do long-term department planning.



Streamlining Planning Opportunities

If we look at the opportunities to expand the single YOY, a 3 or 5-year-plan extend options to flatten the variability caused by throwing things in for last minute firefighting.


Capital Allotments by Year-on-Year change

One Year Change
This shows the percent change in aggregate capital spending if we budget one year to the next)
budget YOY_21 YOY_22 YOY_23 YOY_24 YOY_25
Capital_totals -20.7% 36.5% 7.4% 63.5% 9.8%
Rolling 3 Years
3 year rolling changes
budget YoY_3yrs_23 YoY_3yrs_24 YoY_3yrs_25
Capital_totals 5.6% 36.5% 24.2%
Rolling 5 Year Change
budget YoY_5yrs
Capital_totals 18.3%



Explore the detail in the nominal dollar capital spend data

Police
Fire
Schools
Schools_detail
Public Works
Libraries
Nathaniel Witherell
Parks and Rec
Parks and Rec - detailed
Governemnt Spending
Parking
Fleet
Fixed Cost
External Spend








Deep Dive in the Operations Budget

The Inflation has been volitile since the start of COVID. The Greenwich Operating Budget has not adapted - or increased - operations budgets in line with inflation. The impact is that all departments have been forced to do more with less. The gap between the red line and the blue line illustrate the actual gap in availavle budget.

year operations_budget inflation_pct impact
2021 5150.5 2.877% 5298.676
2022 5092.3 7.446% 5471.480
2023 5296.9 5.669% 5597.193
2024 5472.4 3.308% 5653.410
2025 5600.6 3.283% 5784.486



Gap created while not adjusting to inflaton post-COVID

year impact
2021 5298.676
2022 5471.480
2023 5597.193
2024 5653.410
2025 5784.486
Total 27805.246


By not keeping pace with inflation, Greenwich has created an aggregate $2.7B shortfall in it’s operating costs over the last 5 years.





2025 Est Capital Alignment with Operations spend

Actual Operational Dollar Spend - Top 20 Items

proper_dept_desc Nominal_Dollars_2025
Instruction 1567.762
Employee Benefits 1098.600
Debt 390.990
Nathaniel Witherell 347.481
Transfers From/To Other Funds 196.140
Police Dept - Uniformed Patrol 146.154
Fire Fighting Force 135.298
Pupil Transportation 114.389
Greenwich Library 92.709
Operation Of Plants 79.688
Highway - Streets And Bridges 75.065
Waste Disposal 72.435
Administration 71.515
Maintenance Of Plants 67.729
Insurance 66.640
Contrib External Entity 61.866
Sewer Division 61.802
Bldg Constr & Main 54.309
Food Service Activities 49.567
Information Technology Dept 49.149


Breaking up the nominal dollar spend to include/exclude salaries.

Spend ex-salaries

proper_dept_desc Ex_Salary_Dollars_2025
Employee Benefits 1098.600
Debt 390.990
Transfers From/To Other Funds 196.140
Instruction 183.519
Nathaniel Witherell 147.692
Pupil Transportation 113.175
Insurance 66.640
Waste Disposal 65.619
Contrib External Entity 61.866
Maintenance Of Plants 60.402
Sewer Division 34.432
Bldg Constr & Main 31.102
Greenwich Library 28.917
Information Technology Dept 28.425
Food Service Activities 26.013
Fleet Department 24.017
Highway - Streets And Bridges 22.881
Unemployment & Workers Comp 22.100
Parking Services 20.830
Administration 20.811

Salaries only

proper_dept_desc Salary_Dollars_2025
Instruction 1384.243
Nathaniel Witherell 199.789
Police Dept - Uniformed Patrol 146.154
Fire Fighting Force 131.561
Operation Of Plants 73.779
Greenwich Library 63.792
Highway - Streets And Bridges 52.183
Administration 50.704
Police Dept - Criminal Invest 45.262
Pks & Trees- Pks/Play/ Fields 35.169
Law Department 30.734
Sewer Division 27.370
Food Service Activities 23.554
Bldg Constr & Main 23.207
Human Resources 22.821
Finance - Administration 21.633
Information Technology Dept 20.725
Human Ser-case Mgmt & Programs 17.854
Bldg Inspection 17.510
Police Dept - General Services 17.248



Common sense operating budget

While the operations budget allocates spend among different categories, it becomes difficult to understand exactly which spend go to which department. Below is a real-world rollup of spending.


Percent Change YOY

Review the percent change numbers according to median spend

Raw Spend Per Year



Which departments are getting the biggest increases in funding? Which are receiving less and less every year?


Bottom 20 Department Investment

Not all departments receive the same treatment. The 10 departments recieving LEAST amount of investment of the past 5 years.

Pct Change
proper_dept_desc YOY_dept_22 YOY_dept_23 YOY_dept_24 YOY_dept_25 avg_by_dept median_by_dept
Sewer Division -53.0 76.5 -18.8 -27.9 -5.8 -23.4
Cohen Eastern Civic Ctr 0.0 -39.2 -12.5 136.9 21.3 -6.2
Purchasing Department -16.5 4.4 2.1 -12.3 -5.6 -5.1
Retirement -10.0 17.1 2.8 -90.6 -20.2 -3.6
Parking Services -3.7 -3.8 -3.1 19.5 2.2 -3.4
Unemployment & Workers Comp -1.9 -9.4 -4.3 0.0 -3.9 -3.1
Community Centers -4.4 -8.9 -0.9 2.2 -3.0 -2.7
Fire Dept - Volunteers -11.6 3.1 -8.2 28.9 3.0 -2.5
Administrative Services Center -0.1 -3.1 -11.7 8.1 -1.7 -1.6
Health Dept - Special Clinical 0.3 2.0 -3.1 -6.0 -1.7 -1.4
Dollars
proper_dept_desc tot2021 tot2022 tot2023 tot2024 tot2025 avg_by_dept median_by_dept
Condemnation Commission 0.02000 0.02000 0.02000 0.02000 0.02000 0.0 0.0
Historical District Comm 0.10000 0.10000 0.10000 0.10000 0.10000 0.1 0.1
Representative Town Meeting 0.23070 0.23145 0.23600 0.51604 0.62050 0.4 0.2
Ethics 0.17000 0.17000 0.17000 0.12300 0.12300 0.2 0.2
Community Centers 0.20962 0.20045 0.18252 0.18093 0.18500 0.2 0.2
Fire Apparatus & Equipment 0.28500 0.28500 0.38500 0.38500 0.58500 0.4 0.4
Board Of Assessment Appeals 0.43600 0.43600 0.43600 0.43600 0.43600 0.4 0.4
Probate Court 0.43600 0.43600 0.43600 0.42600 0.42600 0.4 0.4
Parks & Trees - Admin 1.31138 1.32865 1.39691 1.47301 1.50316 1.4 1.4
P & R - Recreation- Suprv 1.36924 1.36727 1.39499 1.42696 1.46211 1.4 1.4


Top 20 Department Investment

The 10 departments recieving MOST amount of investment of the past 5 years.

Pct Chg
proper_dept_desc YOY_dept_22 YOY_dept_23 YOY_dept_24 YOY_dept_25 avg_by_dept median_by_dept
Fire Dept - Buildings 25.7 14.3 24.4 6.1 17.6 19.4
Fire Apparatus & Equipment 0.0 35.1 0.0 51.9 21.8 17.6
Fire Dept - Training -1.5 19.6 5.8 44.4 17.1 12.7
Insurance 41.2 -9.7 10.2 14.1 14.0 12.1
Representative Town Meeting 0.3 2.0 118.7 20.2 35.3 11.1
Transfers From/To Other Funds -6.5 14.2 9.5 11.1 7.1 10.3
D P W - Engineering Division 25.6 12.7 2.0 -2.1 9.6 7.3
Maintenance Of Plants 6.5 -1.0 15.8 8.1 7.3 7.3
Police Dept - General Services -2.7 13.2 6.9 5.7 5.8 6.3
Commission On Aging 7.9 3.4 322.1 1.9 83.8 5.7
Dollars
proper_dept_desc tot2021 tot2022 tot2023 tot2024 tot2025 avg_by_dept median_by_dept
Instruction 1329.39229 1413.15277 1441.40021 1475.71178 1567.76238 1445.5 1441.4
Employee Benefits 989.29468 962.31980 1009.16787 1067.52425 1098.60000 1025.4 1009.2
Debt 457.20000 359.65710 365.63549 362.89206 390.99000 387.3 365.6
Nathaniel Witherell 313.57000 325.48453 314.90814 332.02334 347.48140 326.7 325.5
Transfers From/To Other Funds 151.00000 141.22000 161.23000 176.51667 196.14000 165.2 161.2
Police Dept - Uniformed Patrol 132.64516 134.38430 138.59297 148.91366 146.15355 140.1 138.6
Fire Fighting Force 117.53387 119.92103 123.90520 130.61957 135.29760 125.5 123.9
Pupil Transportation 97.09486 96.97298 107.37236 111.34860 114.38940 105.4 107.4
Greenwich Library 85.57938 87.28587 89.37232 90.73599 92.70913 89.1 89.4
Sewer Division 127.27939 59.88166 105.66165 85.76564 61.80175 88.1 85.8



Explore the operational budget data in detail