he city is right now technically broke.
Whatever the city has on hand for cash in the treasury could be gone in an instant to plug any number of growing deficiencies in department budgets given the short flows of state and federal funding, in lieu of taxes from the casino, home owner taxes which were put off and a serious deficiency in money needed for the public schools.
Much of this is about the Coronavirus and its effect on the nation, the state and all the cities and towns across the nation.
This is not the mayor’s fault.
However, the mayor’s failure to be up front and transparent about creating a new budget with his money manager Chief Financial Officer Eric Demas, leaves many Everett residents and taxpayers to wonder – what is going on?
Where will the city be in another three months?
What is the outlook?
The mayor has already announced about 80 layoffs of city employees.
While the school department side of the budget isn’t his, dozens and dozens of layoffs of school department employees is another factor that will impact the city negatively.
That the city could be broke with all the millions that have so far come in additionally from the Encore Boston Harbor is something not even experienced economists could be made to understand, except to say the mayor has managed to spend nearly every dime of that income.
The new sidewalks, curbing and the building of expensive rock walls by masons in front of the city hall and the park in North Everett which is not yet complete after a year – neither of which were needed – represent the millions the mayor will be searching for in the weeks and months to come.
If you continually spend more than comes in, you doom yourself to inevitable bankruptcy. This is one of the iron laws of economics.
Defy that law, and you make the future questionable, as it has become today.
The city faces a possible financial calamity.
The thinking was that with the casino and hotel, all the city’s financial questions would be solved for generations to come.
Some money should have been put aside for a rainy day. The rainy day has arrived.