Finance Director Patrick Luddy presented about $285,000 in transfers between town departments to balance the town’s budget at the close of fiscal 2026.

The Select Board approved the fiscal year-end transfers at its Tuesday meeting. The 2026 fiscal year concluded on June 30.

“Annually the Select Board and the Finance Committee have the opportunity to review budgets that have run over budget and those that have run under, and I will make a recommendation to you to transfer between those departments to balance our budget out as we close our year,” Luddy said.

The Swampscott Fire Department recorded the largest budget overrun, largely because of overtime costs, Luddy said.

The fire department operates with four shifts per day, requiring at least seven firefighters per shift to staff an engine and ladder truck, with eight preferred during winter months when possible.

Even outside training cycles, vacation and other leave regularly require overtime to maintain minimum staffing. Senior firefighters carry multiple weeks of vacation, and staffing minimums must still be met regardless of absences.

“The more senior people have many more weeks of vacation time benefits to use,” Chief Graham Archer previously told the Swampscott Tides, adding that because the department looks at a minimum number of people per truck it means even with people away, the station needs to be manned by at least seven firefighters. “Overtime is basically driven for one reason or another on any given shift that staffing would be drawn below that. It could be just for vacation time or personal time or maybe something short-term like someone’s sick.”

The Swampscott Fire Department’s overtime was $885,000 in the 2025 fiscal year, according to Luddy. It was $795,000 in the 2026 fiscal year.

There was no need to transfer for police overtime, which Select Board Member Mary Ellen Fletcher called “amazing.”

The fire department also purchased a ladder truck during the previous fiscal year.It came in about $20,000 above the original Town Meeting-approved budget.

“It came slightly over, so we used operating (budget) for that,” Luddy said.

Luddy also said the Department of Public Works incurred higher labor costs during last summer’s trash strike when Teamsters Local 25 delayed and, at times, halted trash collection for more than 400,00 residents in 14 Massachusetts communities.

However, the unfulfilled portion of the contract during the strike also generated some savings for the town, Luddy said. The town reserved about $23,000 last July due to the Republic Services trash strike, Department of Public Works Director and former interim Town Administrator Gino Cresta had told the Swampscott Tides.

“There was some extraordinary street lighting costs in DPW as well,” Luddy said.

Year-end transfers totaled $663,000 for the 2025 fiscal year and $479,000 for the 2024 fiscal year.

“This is lower than what we have seen in the last couple of years,” Luddy said. “It’s reflective of the budgeting that we have been doing, and we haven’t had any crazy variances this year.”

One of the town’s largest savings came from employee health insurance, which finished the year with a $97,000 surplus, Luddy said.