How will State Aid cuts affect Peabody?

The Lynn Item: State aid cuts affect some local communities more than others

The article above outlines a few City and Town leaders discussing how they plan on addressing the expected cuts in local aid. Here is the portion that pertains to Peabody:

...Peabody which picks up 20 percent of its budget from state aid.

Peabody Mayor Michael Bonfanti and his staff has been preparing for these cuts since they were first announced months ago. He asked all departments to trim 5 percent from their current budget and ordered that all potential hires come across his desk first. But, it's all in preparation - Bonfanti said there's no telling just how much Peabody will be affected.

"It'll have a devastating impact on us all," he said. "Until (Patrick) gets the 9C authority and makes those cuts official, we're just not sure."

Bonfanti said it's not only how much, but when the cuts would have to be made.

"When you have 9C cuts in the middle of a budget cycle, it really causes some disruption," he said. "If (Patrick) says to hold off until the next fiscal cycle, that'd be helpful."

A proposed 10 percent cut in local aid would equal at least $3.2 million for the city of Peabody, said Bonfanti. And with those cuts, could come the loss of several programs, including those for after-school children and adults with mental health disabilities.

"Some things don't impact you directly," he said. "They do so indirectly."

I don't have much to say about this right now. This is a huge amount of money to need to be cut from already tight budgets... and in the middle of the year, so many departments would have been spending based on previous figures, not these further reduced ones.

Someone recently commented that I am all doom and gloom (and worse!) The sad thing, in my opinion, is those folks who can't ever see what the reality of a situation is, and instead keep acting like it is just what they WISH or WANT it to be like.

These are the realities. Our already limited amount of public services and government access (thanks to our super low tax rate) is going to be cut even further. The incredibly prudent (even stingy) City financial accounting of the past two Mayors have left us with a dual legacy...

• Some money in reserve and a tax levy surplus (meaning they can choose to tax more without permission - an override)

• Very limited public services including uncared for property, lowest salaries in the area and second rate services (think snow plowing, sidewalk repair, etc.)

It would seem to me that the Cities and Towns which traditionally have higher budgets and more services will be better able to weather this current financial storm because they have somewhere to CUT that isn't already to the bone. But that is the political reality of the City of Peabody.

I fully expect to hear more people calling for tax CUTS because of the hard times not even recognizing that the City is in the same boat as well.