By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and  do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

When I announced in my inaugural address that we would launch a new community budget process, which we held over the course of three public meetings last week, I said that when I submit a proposal to the Board of Aldermen, it will be our budget, reflective of what we as a community want to collectively accomplish. But what is a budget? It’s more than just an accounting spreadsheet. A municipal budget might be the clearest indication of what a community values. You can tell which communities value the arts and culture, getting kids active, keeping their community healthy, and listening to residents by which communities invest in those areas. We’ve been fortunate in recent years that, despite cuts to state aid and an economic downturn, we didn’t have to resort to slashing important community services like recreation and school athletics, like many surrounding communities. We even increased services in some areas. And though we have one of the most transparent and detailed budgets in the state, it’s the community’s needs that are important to us as a city, and we always strive for even more transparency and community input.

Education remains a priority for us, as do infrastructure, public safety and public works. But the community told us in SomerVision to invest more in recreation, public health, arts and culture, and in civic engagement, including more targeted outreach to immigrant communities. Those are the areas we delved into during last week’s community budgeting sessions, soliciting every idea we could, the crazier the better. And by crazy I mean innovative, creative and outside-the-box thinking—the kind of thinking that makes us so Somerville.

We also value smart, strategic investment, based on analysis of data that shows we will get a return on that investment. And we know the return we can get by investing more in those areas that the community pointed to in SomerVision. Investing in recreation goes a long way toward preventing problems in our children’s future, according to a 10-year study by Harvard’s Youth Violence Prevention Center. We can’t arrest our way out of crime. We need to look at the root causes and support high-quality education and strong families. And supporting high-quality education also means educating the whole child. We go beyond the classroom and have programs that support our kids not only academically, but in their social and emotional growth.

We know in Somerville about the value of investing in public health. Our Shape Up Somerville program has become a model for the nation, because it shows how we can take a community-wide approach that promotes healthy living. Results of the initial Shape Up Somerville program showed that children in the program learned to make healthier choices and their health benefitted from it. Fewer Somerville children were obese or overweight after two full school years of the intervention. Compared to two similar control communities, Somerville children had decreased prevalence of overweight/obesity and increased remission of overweight/obesity.

Arts and culture aren’t luxuries. They are part of a vibrant community and have a direct impact on our economy. A study of ArtsUnion’s economic impact in fiscal years 2007 and 2008 showed investing in arts activities has a great impact on our local economy. In fiscal 2007, every dollar spent by ArtsUnion created 3.1 dollars in economic impacts. In fiscal 2008 the return was even higher, with every dollar spent creating 4.4 dollars in economic impacts. Arts and culture activate our neighborhoods and squares, make them destinations and directly support our local businesses.

We also want to invest in community engagement, because we are all the richer for your ideas, perspectives and contributions to all city efforts. It’s why we share data at ResiStat meetings and through our new online data dashboard. Sharing information with an engaged community helps us discover solutions that might not obvious until we delve into the numbers together. That helps us save money and operate more efficiently. A community engagement program like our Somerville Academy for Innovative Leadership (SAIL) is a small investment with a big return. And, of course, we don’t want to talk to the community once and leave it that. We should constantly engage the community and learn how values or priorities may have shifted, so we can know how to build the city that you want.

We want to invest in these areas because we know we’ll get a return on investment. At the same time, we have to spend wisely because we don’t have a lot of wiggle room. Within the School Department, Public Safety and Public Works, there are contractual obligations we have to meet, usually with built in salaries. And we’re legally obligated to fund our pension system and benefits, and to pay down our debt. Altogether, these categories account for 83 percent of the budget. We look for efficiencies in these departments wherever we can, like purchasing studier equipment and more affordable supplies, but that accounts for a small part of the budget. And we continue to do more with less, as our state aid has been reduced by 43 percent over the last 13 years, a net loss of more than $20 million—without adjusting for inflation. Outside of fixed costs such as health care, contractual obligations and debt service, we have actually cut our discretionary spending, and my administration has never asked for an override or debt exclusion. We spend to our obligations—and to our values.

This year we’ll continue that conservative budgeting approach that bond rating agency Moody’s specifically cited in reaffirming our highest bond rating ever last year. We’ll find savings wherever we can and then keep investing in those areas that the community has told us they value. We’ve learned over the past decade that creating a better city means not cutting and running, but creating an effective government that makes smart investments and invests in our values. Our community values recreation, public health, arts and culture, and civic engagement, and we know value of investing in those areas. Our budget is and will be more than a list of numbers. It will be a collective statement of our values.