City Council candidate Eric Poulin is publicly calling on the City Council to invite the city’s state delegation to give a presentation to the Council and general public on the status of the state budget and potential cuts that the city may be facing.
Poulin said, “I have been reading reports from the State House News Service as well as the most recent report on the Senate Ways and Means Budget from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, (www.massbudget.org) which came out on May 15, 2009, and I am very concerned about the level of cuts being proposed to local aid, lottery aid, and additional assistance, as well as to violence prevention monies that our police department may utilize. Also, while I am not running for School Committee, all of us should be concerned about the issue of education and the cuts to Chapter 70 aid, Expanded Learning Time programs, and to school health services among others. I understand that the Commonwealth of MA is facing a fiscal crisis, and some may deem these cuts ‘necessary,’ but what I feel is also necessary is a dialogue regarding not only the justification for these types of cuts, but also and more importantly, if cuts are ‘necessary’ and may soon be a reality, then elected officials and the general public at the local level need to hear more about cuts sooner rather than later so that we may be cognizant of the pain that is coming and hopefully be better prepared than the last time.”
Poulin added, “I understand the desire of elected officials to play ‘nice’ with one another, but I am not calling for anything that isn’t nice. If state leaders are in a tough position then they should appreciate the opportunity to explain their situation to local elected leaders and the general public so that we all will have a better understanding. Unfortunately, I’ve heard remarks from the public that they haven’t read or heard a lot of comments from our state delegation regarding recent fiscal pain that the city has faced. The perception may be that our legislators are insensitive but I am sure that’s not the case and perhaps we can prevent those types of statements in the future with improved dialogue.”
Poulin continued, “We need cooperation among elected leaders at different levels of government, and I hope that the City Council agrees with me and calls for an open and transparent public session whereby our legislators can update all of us. As we all should understand, the state budget directly impacts the city budget and we need to have these types of budget discussions now and not at the end of June. We want to avoid a situation where Councilors might claim that they have to vote for whatever is put in front of them because ‘it’s too late in the game and we need a budget by July 1st.’ These are certainly tough times, but tough times call for strong leadership, leadership that isn’t afraid to discuss budgetary issues in an open, honest and transparent fashion so that all of us, including the general public, understands what is going on because we will need to make the best out of what is bound to be a very challenging task, the task of assembling and reviewing our next municipal budget.”
