A Future Worth Paying For

A Commentary by Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

With the budget season upon us, and the start of a new fiscal year less than two months away, Somerville faces a number of tough financial challenges.  In a time of continued fiscal austerity, with state aid still lagging well below historic levels ‚Äì and fuel, utility, maintenance and healthcare costs at all-time highs ‚Äì we can all agree that we should avoid any unnecessary spending.

On the other hand, Somerville is truly a city on the move, with a growing reputation as a regional hotspot for economic opportunity and as a leader in municipal innovation.  If we are willing to make the investments that maintain and enhance that reputation ‚Äì investments in our infrastructure, our services and our people ‚Äì we can put our city on solid fiscal ground for decades to come.  But if we fail to make those investments, we stand to forfeit much of the progress we‚Äôve already made ‚Äì while ensuring that our current fiscal problems continue to dog us for the foreseeable future.

It‚Äôs a classic ‚Äúgood news/bad news‚Äù situation.  First the bad news:  Our legislative delegation has worked hard to improve local aid for Somerville but, despite their best efforts, the state is poised to send out a local aid package in FY2007 that leaves our city and our schools with $6 million less than we received in FY2002.  (That‚Äôs in actual dollars.  Corrected for inflation, it‚Äôs more like $6.6 million.)  That‚Äôs a net increase of only $1.6 million over FY2006.  By contrast, the anticipated growth in just one line item of the city budget, healthcare costs, is projected to be $3.2 million.

On the local revenue side, our rollback in parking meter rates will cost us at least $750,000 in FY2007 ‚Äì and, as we predicted, strict enforcement of higher fines for parking violations is leading to greater compliance, so the money we make from fines is actually going to go down.  We‚Äôd rather have the compliance than the money, but we can‚Äôt ignore the effect on the bottom line.

Clearly, money remains tight.

Now the good news: Development opportunities at Assembly Square, in Union Square, in the Boynton Yards, at Brickbottom and the Inner Belt districts ‚Äì and all along the corridor of the coming Green Line extension ‚Äì can give us a tremendous boost in new property tax revenues (and ease upward pressures on the residential property tax rate).  At the same time, developments in all these areas can provide thousands of new units of badly needed housing and thousands of new jobs for local residents.  The benefits from these developments won‚Äôt come overnight but, without continued improvements in our infrastructure and services, we may not see them at all.

Somerville can only fulfill our long-term economic promise if we continue to invest in our roads, our schools, our parks, our water systems, in our municipal workforce, and in the performance and accountability of our city government.  It might be tempting simply to reject any new spending initiatives, to hunker down, settle for less, and hope for more state aid, but the results of such a strategy would be disastrous.

We can moan ‚Äì or laugh ‚Äì about our city‚Äôs imperfections and shortcomings but thanks to the work of many people and several city administrations, Somerville now enjoys a hard-earned reputation as a great place to live, to work and build a business.  That reputation has been built through wise investment in everything from new schools and repaved streets to Somerstat and 311.  That reputation can be sustained only by investments that covers everything from additional police officers and improved public health programming to enhanced environmental and communications services.

I am determined to work closely with the Board of Aldermen to find the funds for these new initiatives within the context of a responsible and balanced budget.

There‚Äôs an old saying that goes ‚ÄúIf you don‚Äôt think about the future, you can‚Äôt have one.‚Äù  Somerville currently enjoys an unprecedented opportunity to build a future that provides better economic security ‚Äì and a better quality of life ‚Äì for ourselves and for future generations.  It may stretch our limited resources, but it‚Äôs worth it.