Menino lays out city spending plan and neighborhood investments

Mayor Thomas Menino’s $2.4 billion budget proposal calls for a 2.5 percent increase in spending from the FY 2011 budget, totaling an additional $58.7 million, Menino told reporters last week at a discussion of his budget proposal and capital plan.

Menino said one of the fastest growing areas of city spending is in health insurance costs, which the FY2012 plan recommends funding at $17.5 million, about 14.9 percent of total spending.

Menino has been a vocal advocate of health care cost reform for municipalities at the state level, where both the House and Senate have passed budgets with provisions to help towns and cities lower health costs. The two branches are working on a compromise budget to send to the governor’s desk.

“Both plans I can live with,” Menino said.

“We’re very hopeful that we will see real reform in the legislature this year,” said Meredith Weenick, the city’s chief financial officer.

Menino and top City Hall aides met with neighborhood reporters last week to highlight many of the projects in the city’s proposed spending plan. The plan needs the approval of the City Council, which has been holding its annual hearings on various aspects and departments of the budget.

Boston Public Schools are set to receive the lion’s share of the funding with almost $830 million, or 35 percent of the total budget. This is over $8 million more than last year’s budget, registering a one percent increase.

The police, fire and other public safety departments will receive $450 million, or 19 percent of the total. Funding for the Fire Department is up 2.9 percent while police funding is being cut by .8 percent.
Public Works and Transportation will be cut by one half of a percent for $131 million in funding.

According to the budget plan, the city in fiscal year 2012 will have lowest number of full-time equivalent employees since 2004. The plan does not call for staffing cuts to public safety agencies.

The majority of the city’s revenue is generated by property taxes, which make up 66 percent of the city’s income. Boston generated over $1.5 billion from property taxes last year, according to city records, which Weenick described as “modest growth.”

“That reliance on a single source of revenue makes us vulnerable,” Weenick said.

State aid, which has seen drastic cuts in recent years, makes up 15 percent of city revenues. The city expects state aid for Boston to decrease by an additional 15 percent in FY2012, creating what Weenick called a “significant loss of state aid,” totaling $37.1 million. Local aid cuts are “a devastating blow to the city of Boston and a devastating blow to other cities and towns,” Weenick said.

Boston’s population has grown to 617,594 according to last year’s U.S. Census. It is the first time since 1970 that the city’s population has exceeded 600,000. With a growth rate of 4.8 percent, Boston has grown at a faster rate than New York City, Chicago and San Francisco.

Released in April, Menino’s five-year capital investment plan for fiscal years 2012 through 2016 is slated to send $57.4 million to Dorchester with an additional $19.2 million for projects in Mattapan.

The capital plan also sees the return of the Neighborhood Improvements through Capital Expenditures, or NICE, program, which allows local community and civic groups to apply for grants to improve their neighborhoods. The city is funding NICE with a $1 million bond.

“When the neighborhoods have something to say in what’s going on in the neighborhood, things work out much better. They take care of it and they’re very protective of it because it’s theirs,” Menino said.

Projects specific to Dorchester include playground refurbishments, roof and gutter replacement at an Uphams Corner municipal building, a new Uphams Corner library, renovations to the C-11 police station, interior and exterior improvements to the Strand Theater, a new retaining wall at Dorchester Park and more. The ongoing  Dorchester Ave. renovation project, which is being paid for with federal stimulus funds, makes up the largest portion of the city’s capital investment in Dorchester.

After the budget discussion, Menino quizzed reporters on various Boston stats and trivia listed in a pamphlet produced by the CEO Club.

The mayor happily reported that there were 163 major professional sports home games in Boston last year, which resulted in $300 million in fan spending, according to the pamphlet.


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