Budget Battle Predicted

It's the maiden voyage for Mayor Hanlon; he's sailing into his first budget cycle rather late in the year, with storm clouds on the horizon. Although a new mayor can usually expect smooth sailing in his first year, it would appear that a budget battle is working up a good head of steam, and if the newspapers have it correctly - it should be at least an interesting debate. At issue is the significant budget increase this year, of over 7 million dollars, which has been attributed to the increase in fixed costs, "old bills" from the previous administration, as well as a number of hirings (despite a much promised "hiring freeze") and some steep raises.

Let's hope cooler heads prevail, despite the silliness surrounding the open meeting debacle, which we mentioned in the previous post. Although the city council has every right to be annoyed with the mayor over that nonsense, the city budget is important business for the citizens of Everett; it's a legal document that frames the finances of the city. The bond rating depends on solid budgeting and we hope that Mayor Hanlon's team is up to the task.

Here are some questions we would like to see posed to the Mayor:

1. How many new hires were made in total? Why did you think this was necessary? Are you anticipating any further hiring beyond the current budget totals?

2. Why is at least one position, which was previously paid a stipend of $5,000, now worth $20,000?

3. Why have raises, which typically run between 2-3%, edged up significantly this year?

4. Please itemize all the old bills of the previous administration which weren't covered in the FY 2006 budget.

5. How much do you think taxes will go up this year?

6. How many lawsuits are pending?

7. How much money is outside counsel costing, including the school department? What are the outstanding lawsuits?

8. What is our tax and local aid revenue expected to be for the year?

Have any more questions? Please post them.