New Bedford's budget crisis deepens with looming $32 million deficit

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There are two types of business owners. Those who are busy and those who want to be busy. Toast is designed for both. With tools to keep you humming and help turn grind into growth. That's how you turn busy into business. Toast. Built for busy. The city of New Bedford continues to face a budget crisis for the fiscal year that starts July 1st. During the mayor's budget address this spring, he described the deficit as 32 million. He proposed to cut that deficit by raising taxes, laying off personnel, and closing a fire station. On the budget cutting night, the city council cut around, depending on how you read it, 1.7 1.9 million. More than enough money, the council says, to keep open station 9 in the north end. So, where does the budget crisis stand now? Jack Spain, columnist for the New Bedford Light, is uh standing ready trying to help us understand the city's next step or steps. Good morning, Jack. Morning, Jim. Jack, when both sides uh when are both sides going to sit down and get to the business of really saving money for the taxpayers? Because it's going to require some consolidations. Yeah, it's going to require some layoffs. Yeah, it's going to require doing without some things and they haven't done that yet and July 1st is right around the corner. I don't know that they're ever going to do that, Jim. Uh, Mayor Mitchell has been in office for I think he's in his 15th year now and city councilors have come and gone, but one thing you can be sure of, no matter who was on that council, they're not going to be able to compromise with the mayor. Now, they say he doesn't compromise, and they probably have a point on that, but he says he doesn't compromise because the unions won't compromise on health insurance and pensions. And the state legislators have cut back on local aid. All of it's true and all of it's not true. And and in New Bedford's fairness, in fairness to New Bedford, Fair Haven, Lakeville, other communities across the state are having because of the cuts in local aid, are having a budget crunch this year. But what is different than New Bedford is this inability to solve it and that's very frustrating to an observer like myself. Now look, I am not a resident of New Bedford, but I love the city and I know this is a tough budget year. Um I heard councelor Ian Abrew on the radio this week saying that the council cut onethird of 1% of the mayor's budget. He thought that was pretty good enough to restore Engine 9. That isn't tackling this budget crisis. That's tackling one issue that people are up in arms about. Yeah. You never can underestimate the ability of the council to play to the cheap seats. In this case, the cheap seats will be a fire station, the firefighters getting laid off, the police getting laid off. I'm not saying all those things aren't problems. They clearly are. But you know what the mayor responds is? Yeah. And so the council cuts things like the utilities bill, the unemployment insurance, uh they take a position out of the solicitor's office. All things that are crazy and some of them which are mandated by state law have to be paid. So, you know, it's the council says the mayor has money elsewhere. They don't really say where that money is. the mayor is constrained by not using you know one-time money that may be available for paying things like salaries and and ongoing programs like you know health insurance. So you know you pick it. One thing is clear. New Before City Council, the mayor have not been able to compromise for a long, long time. No matter who was mayor, no matter who was on the council, and the state legislature has underfunded local aid since 2008. Those things are all clear. The rubber is hitting the road, Jack. They've got to sit down and work something out. uh because it's going to be a tough I mean look I'm sure the council blames the mayor the mayor blames the unions and the council for being in you know immovable on some issues. Um but uh it it it looks like the council is trying to put the mayor in a position where there isn't enough money to transfer between accounts as there frequently is that for bills that have to be paid and then he just pays them illegally. They take him to court. I get I don't know that more money is um uh uh uh put up. I remember uh when Scott Lang was mayor, he laid he furled the workers against their will on Friday afternoons. They took him to court and they won. Eight years it took them had to pay back $1.8 million for hours they never worked. So these are two sides that are both determined to get what they want and there ain't no compromising going on. If you've never been to a budget meeting, it really is quite enlightening because you have to get six votes to approve a budget cut. While you may s vote to vote a cut, another guy, another counselor sitting next to you may not. He may have a reason why he doesn't want a cut, whether he knows the person, whatever. Whatever the reason is, maybe it's a program he or she believes in. Yeah. And so it's hard. You have a lot of cuts, a lot of proposed cuts that never see the light of day because they don't get six votes. Uh and the article, the light article by Eleanor Bianki, it really shows us that it's not always easy to get six votes to approve a budget cut. So, um perhaps they could have cut more uh the other night, but uh that just didn't happen because there weren't enough cuts approved with six votes. Um you talked with a couple of budget experts in the chat uh in the chat format recently. Uh so I take it there's no easy way to get out of this that they didn't have a a golden bullet. They didn't have an answer. I think there has to be compromising where nobody gets exactly what they want. That the mayor doesn't get um the uh uh extent of compromises he wants from the unions, the unions don't get everything they want. Um the council gets some programs they want, others that they don't. Uh but really instead of wanting to compromise, from my perspective, it just seems like both sides want to win completely and they can't and they're willing to put the city in danger in order to win. Uh what do you think? Any chance more local aid will magically appear to help cities and towns with their budget wars? Well, you know, the the state is approaching the July 1st deadline. And I'm hearing that they're not going to, as they have many years, fail fail to pass it and have to do a supplemental budget. There is quite a bit of pressure on them because it is true that they have never returned that local aid since the great recession of 2008 to the level that it was before. Now, they may say, well, we put a lot of money into school reform and the gateway cities are getting all this money. It almost looks like they took money from here and gave it to there. But I think there is a lot of pressure on the state legislators now. Um, uh, longtime people like Representative Cabra, Senator Montgney, Senator Montgney has already come up with a half a million that would keep the fire station open for 3 months. I don't know, good, but not great. Uh, so, you know, I I think there is a lot of pressure on the on the legislature to come up with something. You're listening to town square Sunday. I'm Jim Phillips. My guest is Jack Spain, columnist for the online newspaper New Bedford Light. Jack, you recently wrote a piece critical of the New Bedford Retirement Board that recently voted to increase benefits for its members by 3%. You suggested the board ignored the needs of city taxpayers uh by voting for the increase. Um why do you feel that way? I you know, I have a different feeling. uh that board is there to protect the retirees. Yeah. I I don't think they can protect the retirees by ignoring the city taxpayers because there have been communities in Massachusetts that have gone bankrupt and were taken over into receiverhip in the last 25 years. Chelsea, Springfield. I think that the um by the way it's 3% on the first 14,000. I think they raised it to 16,000 this time. So, it's and and it really does help the people who are at the lower end, although there's a lot of retired employees that are up the upper end that could absorb it when you're asking all the management personnel uh at city hall to go without um a raise. When you're when you're when you're talking about closing a fire station or reducing the firefighters crews from 4 to three, you're talking about, you know, not picking up um uh uh refues as much. uh not keeping the parks uh mowed as much, not I mean cutting all across the city. It just seems to me that the retirement board should be willing to do something and take less than 3% this year. They have to make that vote. I know that some of the people on the retirement board say, "Oh, no, it's automatic." It's not automatic. The vote has to be taken. and the city's representatives on that board, Krillin Lowry, the city auditor, and Angela Netto, the retired personnel director, both both voted against it. So, it's not an automatic thing. Um, and you know, the retirement pensions in Massachusetts are a mess anyway. They're all underfunded. It, you know, it is a difficult situation. I just think that in a budget year like this, everybody needs to share the pain. Um, you took a walk down history lane recently, Jack, uh, when you discovered a plaque, uh, paying tribute to three New Bedford citizens that were killed in a British raid of New Bedford in 1778. A plaque that I don't think anybody knew was there, except maybe the most astute historian, perhaps, but you discovered it. The the preservation society assures me that dozens of people have known it is there. I believe them, but dozens is not 100,000 that live in New Bedford. Uh I've been here 27 years. About seven or eight years ago, I was walking down county one day and out of the corner of my eye, I see this little stone plaque marker that you see around New Bedford in someone's front yard. Now it's a YW.CA front rooming house, but at that time it was a private property. And I look at it and it's a monument to the three New Bedford citizens who were killed at the corner of North and County Streets during what was called Gray's raid. You know, I always knew that there was what I considered a skirmish during the Revolutionary War. It was much more than a skirmish. It was 4,500 to 5,000 British troops landing at the cove, marching up County Road, turning right on right onto what is king, what was King Street, then now Union Street, going down to the waterfront, burning 70 ships, torching the warehouses, the distilleries, the rope works because they were privateeers. New Bedford was an integral port during the revolution. The only port north of Baltimore, not controlled by the British, and the privateeers were helping the Continental Army out of there. New Bedford played an important role in the revolution, and I think that there ought to be a monument that is more visible to what happened. You also suggest the incident should be part of New Bedford's 250th Birth of America celebration. Yeah. which is this year coming up. My understanding is that the mayor is going to have a special ceremony at the marker uh this year. I I wish I could remember the the three names of the three gentlemen. I think Abram Cook, uh Diet Trafford, and I don't know what the third one is. They're going to have a ceremony this year. Grace Raid anniversary for 250 is not until 2028, two years from now. Maybe they could do more for education wise for the tourists for a um maybe a tourism roundup. Sure. To do better. All right. Jack Spelain of the New Bedford Light, the online newspaper, has been my guest. Jack, thank you for coming in and keep writing these articles. They got you doing different kinds of things now than just politics. Probably a good thing, isn't it? [laughter] Not a bad thing. I I've always done a little bit of culture. All right, good. There's more to come on Towns Square Sunday. Stay with us. [music] There are two types of business owners. Those who are busy and those who want to be busy. 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