NORTHAMPTON — A new building code kicks in citywide next Monday that effectively bans the use of fossil fuels in any new buildings or renovations of existing structures in Northampton.

The City Council on Jan. 16 unanimously approved an ordinance that spells out the change, making Northampton one of only 10 communities in Massachusetts to take such measures, and the only one in the western part of the state.

The new code is required for Northampton to participate in the Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration Program, a state-sponsored pilot that allows select cities and towns to enact measures to cut fossil fuels completely for new buildings. All other municipalities in the program are located in affluent suburbs of Boston or on Martha’s Vineyard: Acton, Aquinnah, Brookline, Cambridge, Concord, Lincoln, Lexington, Newton and Arlington.

Under the proposed new building code, all new buildings or renovations to existing buildings will be required to be all-electric, with any use of fossil fuels prohibited. Although new heating systems installed in buildings would have to meet the new guidelines, “like-for-like” replacements of existing fossil fuel equipment, such as a boiler with another boiler, would be permitted.

Several exceptions are in place already for certain types of buildings and facilities, including research labs, hospitals and medical offices, as well as outdoor cooking and heating appliances and emergency generators. Historical buildings are also exempt if following the ordinance “would change the historic fabric of the building,” according to Ben Weil, director of the city’s Climate Action and Project Administration

 Gov. Maura Healey today filed her $61.5 billion state budget plan for fiscal 2026, in tandem with a $1.3 billion fiscal 2025 supplemental budget bill.

The bills include several positive investments in municipal government, though they reflect a budget year with only modest revenue growth expected at the state level.

In order to make some of her proposed investments in fiscal 2026, the governor would leverage several sources of revenue, including surplus surtax revenue (also known as “Fair Share” funding) from fiscal 2024, the Student Opportunity Act Trust Fund, and anticipated surtax revenue budgeted for fiscal 2026.

Healey’s budget bill, known as House 1, would increase the main discretionary local aid account by 2.2% over fiscal 2025, while increasing Chapter 70 school aid by $420 million, honoring the commitments made in the 2019 Student Opportunity Act. Healey proposes increasing the “minimum education aid” figure up to $75 per pupil for fiscal 2026 — significantly above the statutory minimum of a $30 per student increase each fiscal year. This represents the highest amount included in a governor’s budget recommendation.

The governor’s state budget proposal is the first step in a months-long process. The House and Senate Ways and Means committees are expected to host a budget hearing in the coming months on municipal and school aid for fiscal 2026, and the House is expected to debate its budget bill in April, with the Senate deliberating its own bill in May. The Legislature will work to get a final budget bill to the governor by the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1