Author: bmrb

The recently released final Cherry Sheet state aid estimates project an additional $1.2M in net state aid revenue for the City’s $2.9B FY16 operational budget. That will help the City, but the state budget continues a pattern of local aid growth for Boston being outpaced by growing state assessments, which reduces available revenue for the City. Over the past ten years, Boston’s state aid, net of teacher pension payments, has decreased by $41.4M or 8.9%, while state assessments increased by $120.6M or 105.4%. The result has been a decline of net state aid (revenue less assessments) available for operations of $161.9M or 46.2%. (continued . . .)

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has announced that an additional 668 Commonwealth charter school seats will be available for Boston students. These seats will bring the number of charter school seats approved for Boston to 11,544 by allowing expansion in existing charter schools and the potential creation of an additional charter school for Boston resident students. Much debate has focused on the effect charter expansion has on the BPS budget. However, while the increased charter tuition assessment has reduced the City’s available operational revenues, the BPS budget has maintained a constant percentage of the City’s overall budget. Reason…(continued . . .)

The three-year exemption from the Pacheco law for the MBTA provided in the Commonwealth’s FY16 $38.1B operating budget is not a move that should lead straight to privatization of selected services. Rather success in delivering selected MBTA services with more efficiency and cost savings will more likely be achieved if MBTA workers, with management support, compete with private firms for the delivery of services. The competition creates the incentive to present bid proposals that aim to produce greater efficiency which generally leads to lower costs. That result has been achieved by several cities that have engaged in the Competitive Service Delivery (Continued . . . .)>

All 13 Boston City Councilors are running for re-election this year, but the competition is limited. Four incumbent At-Large Councilors and one other At-Large candidate will bypass the September 8th Preliminary Election and compete for the four seats in the General Election on November 3rd. Of the nine District seats, only two District Councilors will campaign this summer for the September 8th Preliminary Election to reduce the number of candidates in each race to two. Five District Councilors have no opponent and two have only one opponent meaning their names and the names of their opponents will only be on the November 3rd General Election ballot. (continued. . .) >