Mayor to Outline Budget Problems and Solutions
February 7, 2008
Monday night, I’ll be meeting with councilors to outline our budget problems, and to give some possible solutions.
I’ll first outline how this is a State wide problem, not a city one.
We are fortunate, in a way, that the steps we took earlier to reform health care (saving $1.5 million a year) and improve our tax base, have left us in a position that we can, and we will, manage this problem.
The key is this: plan, don’t panic. We have been preparing for months. I meet with Department heads on a weekly basis-each one of them has an assignment to either enhance revenues or cut expenses.
Working together, we have made some substantial progress. Monday night you will see that our $5.8 million deficit is now substantially reduced, but we still have a ways to go.
Here are some of the ideas I’ll be putting forth on Monday night:
a. Health care reforms– will save us about $1.5 million, but requires union approvals;
b. Raise fees, to make certain that the amount of the fee is commensurate with the work being done.
c. Sell vacant land which we took for back taxes. (Not park land and not land we need for other purposes.)
d. Sell water sewer hookups to other communities
e. Streamline and cut our government.
Going forward, we are determined to protect public safety and public education, there are the keys to our city.
Stay tuned. Check my web site, http://www.jamesfiorentini.com/ for more details on my plans and please feel free to offer your comments, suggestions and ideas.
Jim Fiorentini
6 Responses to “Mayor to Outline Budget Problems and Solutions”
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February 7, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Dear Mayor,
We are at a pivotal point in time for this town’s educational growth and development. The “gift” of roughly $5.8 million dollars cannot be turned down. We have many inspirational leaders ready to charge ahead and use this money wisely to better the lives of our children and thus, ultimately our collective future.
February 7, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Believe me, we are working diligently on this, and will have a proposal to make shortly.
The money that the reader is speaking of is to expand the high school renovation project beyond what is required for accreditation purposes.
The State is willing to pay for about 62% of it, if we can come up with a funding mechanism to pay for the rest– about $1.7 to $1.8 million.
Unfortunately, I do have the time to write about this right now, but will have more comments later.
Jim Fiorentini
February 10, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I think you’re right, we can’t panic. we will get through this, we just have to band together and come up with some ideas on how to stretch what budget we do have.
February 12, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I think we need to start working together with other towns on a bigger basis. The state government is the most wasteful and special-interest influenced in the country. If state law requires that 70% of our unions agree to join the states health insurance pool, then lets get together with other cities and towns, even towns in neighboring states, and form our own health insurance pool. Then we set the laws, not the state. It’s time for the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts to show the state government how to run things.
February 25, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Over the past couple of years the city has done a fine job of consolidating expenses and cutting spending. I have read about several city unions taking on more in health care costs and other monetary concessions to help the city finances. At some point the city will need to find other ways to balance the budget. The city employees and their families should not be the only ones to bear the burden of the city’s financial crisis. If a business is in need of more revenue they raise the cost of the product to the consumer. The city can collect a larger amount of money from 60,000 residents than it can from a thousand or so employees.
February 26, 2008 at 1:53 am
Employees agreed to pay more a couple of years ago. Their cooperation was critical, and they should be commended for it. They received a cost of living increase to compensate them for it– a total of 9% spread out over 5 years. I wish it could have been more.
Our employees are good people, and I like working with them. I would like to save their jobs.
The action taken two years ago was the first step, but it can not be the only step, towards health care reform.
No one is suggesting that employees be the only ones to bear the burden.
Taxpayers have to pay more, and they are. Taxes go up every year by the maximum amount allowed by proposition 2 and half.
But part of the burden has to be changing health care costs. Right now, we have a $5 co-pay when employees go to the doctor. No private industry offers so generous a plan. State employees pay $15.
We pay 80% of the health care premiums for our employees, and 85% for retirees. Methuen pays 62%.
If we are going to save jobs, and save the public services we all want, if we are going to keep public education and public safety intact, then we have to change our health care system. There is no other way.
We really have to make a choice as a community– do we continue to offer the Cadillac of health care plans and every year cut education and other vital services in order to pay for it?
It is really this simple. Health care reform saves jobs and saves services like education.
Jim Fiorentini