Dear Malden Residents:
With another budget
season upon us, we are faced with the reality that our revenues in the new
fiscal year will not be sufficient to support our expenses. As most of you
know, we are limited on what we can do relative to increasing revenues. Specifically,
we are capped on property tax growth to 2 ½ percent per year and we don’t have
any real maneuverability on our local receipts as these remain fairly constant
year to year.
Additionally, state aid, in the form of unrestricted aid and
school aid, promises to be a challenge. The proposal from the Commonwealth reveals
that unrestricted local aid will increase $300K and funding for education will
increase by only a little more than $200K. Meanwhile, our State Assessments,
which include items such as the MBTA and Charter School tuition payments, increased
resulting in a net decrease in Local Aid. Finally, our reliance on one-time
resources in the amount of $5M in the current fiscal year to keep the city’s
operations intact, have been all but exhausted going into the new fiscal year.
Since we are severely limited on what we can do on the revenue
side of the balance sheet, we have to look toward our expenses to balance the
budget, which by state law is required each year beginning on July 1. With most
of the city budget being consumed by personnel costs, I already find myself not
being able to sleep at night knowing that the decisions that need to be made to
achieve the balance will not be easy.
There is no doubt that we find ourselves in a tough spot, but I am
confident that if we work together we will meet the challenges that lie ahead.
Despite our current fiscal situation, there are a lot of great things happening
in our City and we continue to move forward with many successful projects and
initiatives. Take a look here to see all that we have accomplished this
past year. Thank you.
Sincerely,
GARY CHRISTENSON
City of Malden, Mayor
