The City Council on Tuesday approved nearly $165 million in spending for city and school budgets, various enterprise funds, Community Preservation Act money and various revolving funds for the fiscal year starting July 1.
That budget still left a $2.2 million gap between the School Committee’s so-called level services budget hit by skyrocketing special education costs, and what the mayor’s budget provided.
The School Committee was scheduled to take a final vote on the schools’ fiscal 2025 budget during its meeting Thursday evening, according to the agenda. The schools face a reduction of 20 positions as a result of the inability to close the funding gap.
The gap existed even with the use of some one-time funding by the mayor, including a $1.25 million supplemental appropriation for special education expenses this year and $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding, to try and close what had been a more than $6 million shortfall. The city also provided a $1.75 million increase to the schools’ budget and has proposed the creation of a $750,000 special education stabilization fund next year.
During discussion on various departmental budgets, Councilor at-Large Valerie Gilman and others noted some of the $1.94 million in requests on the city side that were pruned out of the budget.
These cuts included $25,748 to replace a Police Department vehicle, $100,000 from the Fire Department’s overtime budget, and $30,000 for tree maintenance in the Public Works’ budget, according to a list from the treasurer/collector. The budget also trimmed $100,000 for a rooftop generator for the Rose Baker Senior Center with hope the expense could be covered through ARPA funds.
According to Budget and Finance Chair Scott Memhard, city spending breaks down this way:
General funds: Nearly $140 million, of which $51.488 million was set aside for schools.
Enterprise funds: $20.8 million.
Community Preservation Act funding: $940,000.
Revolving funds: nearly $3.2 million.
And while councilors in the Kyrouz Auditorium approved many of the recommendations of the council’s Budget and Finance Standing Committee unanimously, the vote on the school budget was 8-1, with Councilor-at-Large Jeff Worthley questioning the administration’s revenue projections in an attempt to steer more money to the school budget.
Worthley started off by looking at $175,000 in free cash to stabilize the sewer rate.
“What we are doing is taking money that was generated from taxpayers and subsidizing the sewer rate users,” he said. He asked if there as a better use for the free cash.
Memhard said Worthley raised a valuable point, but it was a little late in the game for such a change.
Council President and at-Large Councilor Tony Gross said this was brought up in subcommittee “and did not meet with a favorable result.”
The vote to use free cash to subsidize the sewer rate was 8-1 with Worthley voting “no.” He also was the lone vote against the city’s revenue projections.
“It was an unfortunate budget this year,” Councilor at-Large Jason Grow said, “certainly one obviously driven by special education costs.” It’s something he said councilors need to hold their state delegation responsible for in the future.
“I think it’s really important to remember this budget started out $6 million off of what the school department initially requested,” Grow said. He said through one-time monies and ARPA funding, the administration was able to fill $4 million of the gap.
“It’s $2 million too much,” Grow said, nothing the city-side budgets were also $2 million short.
“I don’t see how to bridge that gap,” he said. “I just don’t think that we are going to get there with revenue cooking this year. Maybe we could have done a small amount, but at the end of the day we have to be responsible for the entire city budget.”
Ward 3 Councilor Marjorie Grace thanked Worthley “for his efforts regardless of the outcome, his heart was in the right place.
“I don’t see how we can make the call any different than what they are and I’m truly sorry for that,” Grace said, looking at the cuts made.
Worthley said he voted against the mayor’s recommendation for the schools’ budget at Budget and Finance and he planned to do so again.
“I really do appreciate the calls for working together,” he said, but he did not like the term “cooking the books.”
“I think the rhetoric around that is unhelpful,” he said. He continued to question the use of about $786,000 in free cash, including the $175,000 to offset the sewer rate, and $611,000 in the budget. and he objected to revenue projections that showed significant decreases in meals and hotel taxes from year prior.
Gross noted other revenue projections “are also in the opposite direction.” He later read from a slide presentation from the schools that said “The Gloucester Public Schools will be able to, and this is with this budget, to fully able to remain strong.”
“In finalizing this budget, we have navigated significant challenges with $1.9 million in reductions on the city side and $2.2 million on the school side,” Mayor Greg Verga said in an email to the Times.
“I am proud of the collaborative work that we have done with our finance team at City Hall, which has resulted in a responsible and balanced budget.
“As I said at the City Council’s public hearing, this is not a budget without pain, but my goal has been to do the best we can with what we have and avoid making this a political issue,” Verga said. “People’s jobs should not be politicized.”
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.
