CityofLowell2013ProposedBudget
CityofLowellproposedCapitalPlan
Last Night the City Council received the Manager’s proposed budget for 2012/2013 along with the Capital Improvement Proposed Budget. This morning both these pdf’s are available on the City of Lowell website.
The Manager in my view has shown the savings he has promoted and promised and is dedicating money to increase public safety, repair schools and city equipment and improve the recreation programs for the kids while raising taxes MINIMAL..which regardless of what some might say in this fiscal climate shows Lowell to be in great fiscal shape.
A few weeks ago I was backing the call for ZERO increased but after taking a tour of 3 schools and seeing for myself the poor shape of these buildings (and others from what parents across the city have told me) I can support a minimal increase because the city has to be good landlords and make these repairs.
My daughter’s School the Robinson was hit by a truck 6 years ago and the plywood piece that they place over the broken concrete is still there. Take a look ate the pictures I posted a few weeks ago, would you want to use these bathrooms? The city hasn’t ben able to make repairs, they can and must now.
I will speak in favor of the budget as a parent who has toured the schools and is involved in the schools and knows first-hand the need for improvements and repairs. I will also speak as the 4th oldest of 11 children who in my youth didn’t have a vacation other than spending large amounts of time with the Park Instructor’s at McPherson’s Park and the Life Guards at that Pool.
It provided endless hours of summer fun for many of us and it is great to see the city offering an expanded recreation program for the kids this upcoming summer.
It also shows a Capital plan going out the next few years and the expected or projected cost but one the city as Landlords and keepers of our streets and parks must support, maintain, repair and improve.
There are “raises” and there are “raises”. The first set of raises is built into the department budgets as “contractually obligated”, whereas the second set of raises is included as manager’s contingency(to be negotiated).
The first may be step increases based on seniority or position upgrades, whereas the latter is probably what we typically might call a cost-of-living “adjustment”.
But the combination of the two means that some people will get increases exceeding what is reported on the surface.
In the private sector, the only raises I see for my family s furture, is the rise in the cost of lfe. Food, gasoline ,etc. Not our pay checks.