"Cuts in local aid slice deeper in poorer cities; Lynn, Brookline highlight contrasts" by Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff | February 24, 2009
Lynn has removed half a dozen police officers from its schools, leaving the 13,000-student district with just one security official. It has mothballed a firetruck and laid off 30 municipal workers. Teachers agreed to work a day without pay to avoid mass layoffs.
I know where they can find some money.
The State Budget Swindle
Governor Guts State Services
Pigs at the State Trough
City government is reeling from a financial crisis caused by a potential $11 million reduction in state aid over 18 months, what Mayor Edward J. Clancy calls a "below the belt" hit that affects the working-class city's poor and immigrant populations....
Oh. That's why this article appears in the pro-illegals, pro-NAU, pro-corporate, agenda-pushing Globe.
The contrasting stories in the two communities - one wealthy, one relatively poor - are an example of how Governor Deval Patrick's emergency spending reductions are delivering far more pain in the state's neediest cities.... The disparities have prompted elected officials who represent harder-hit communities to demand more assistance, an additional safety net for communities with larger crime problems, more immigrant children in the schools, and greater poverty and social needs.
"If you want a just and fair society, you have to care about all 351 communities," said state Senator Mark C. Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat whose home city has laid off more than 180 workers, including 38 police officers and 38 firefighters....
See: People Vs. Profits
The fundamental reasons for the disparities are obvious. Communities with higher-priced homes and robust downtowns lean more heavily on local taxpayers. Poor towns with weaker local tax collections rely more heavily on state aid....
And that's where the cuts are?
Towns less reliant on that aid can get by, especially this year, by spending reserves, avoiding budgeted purchases, even turning down the thermostat. Brookline is considering ways to squeeze more money out of its parking system.
I wish I had reserves to draw on.
That doesn't work in Lynn, where residents are accustomed to watching their city government cut staff and services in hard times.
John O'Neil, a 56-year-old retiree from the local GE plant, after scratching lottery tickets at a newsstand a few blocks from Lynn's City Hall:
"There's not a [heck] of a lot you can do. What are you going to do, raise the real estate tax?"
Anyone they can find around here.
Raising the real estate tax is an option for officials, in some places.
I told ya!
In Boston's most rarefied suburbs, voters routinely grant permission to raise taxes beyond the constraints of the Proposition 2 1/2 tax cap, by passing overrides. Brookline officials waited 14 years between override votes, and when they asked last year, voters approved a $6.2 million override - not just to preserve staff and service levels but also to expand foreign-language instruction to the elementary grades....
(Blog author begins to wonder when or if anything is ever going to be done with AMERICAN kids in mind)
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The plight at the Lynn library provides a good example of the stress on the city.
On a recent visit, every personal computer terminal at the library was being used by residents. Job seekers without home computers come to prepare resumes and check e-mail, said Nadine M. Mitchell, the city's chief librarian. Across-the-board reductions forced Mitchell to give back more than $26,000 from her local library budget of roughly $1 million, with the year already more than half gone. She avoided layoffs and hour reductions through personnel savings from a midyear retirement and unpaid maternity absences. That means those left are doing more.
Related: Ssssshhhhhh!: Pension Being Drawn
Next year's budget is still being fashioned, but the mayor expects the library to have less money for materials and operating hours.
Hey, BOOKS and READING are NOT IMPORTANT!
That could jeopardize its certification with the state Board of Library Commissioners, which enables Lynn to receive state grants and allows local residents to access materials from other communities. Lynn's lone library - branches were closed and sold in past budget-balancing measures - is now open just 64 hours a week, one more than the state board's minimum....
So the STATE will be able to SAVE MONEY by not certifying the library!!!
What a win-win for state looters, huh?
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