February 22, 2016, 11 a.m -Testimony of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau Before the Boston City Council’s Ways and Means Committee – Promoting the City of Boston’s financial health is a priority of the Research Bureau and for that reason we bring a whole-city perspective to every financial matter. We oppose this award for the following reasons: (continued . . .)
At its meeting on February 11th, the City Council began the process that could lead to the voters of Boston deciding whether to adopt the Community Preservation Act (CPA) on the November ballot. The order has been sent to the Government Operations Committee chaired by Councilor Michael Flaherty. A majority vote of the City Council is required to place the CPA question on the ballot. The question would propose a 1% surcharge on residential and business tax bills starting in FY18. (continued . . .)
As the City of Boston and its 40 employee unions are preparing for the next round of collective bargaining negotiations to begin in early 2016, the officers in the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society union received an arbitration award on December 22, 2015 that would provide a salary increase of 28.7% at an estimated cost of $22.8M over six years (July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2016). This arbitration award is based on components of the highly expensive 2013 arbitration award for the police patrolmen and continues an escalating cycle of awards that is fiscally unsustainable by the City and could lead to service reductions in other areas. No provisions for management improvements were included in this award. (continued . . .)
The December 9th report on 2015 school performance levels from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) shows little change for Boston Public Schools (BPS) from 2014, due mainly to the adoption of the PARCC exam in grades three through eight. This year, 66 BPS schools (64.1%) are classified as underperforming, (Level 3 or below), up from 65 schools (63.7%) in 2014. In the current school year, 30,439 students attend an underperforming school, which represents 61.8% of the BPS student body attending schools assigned performance levels. (continued . . .)