Given the secrecy and the quiet about the city’s budget making efforts, the assumption is that the city must be broke or very close to it.
The mayor and his financial chief, who most often have something to say about the brilliance of their financial meanderings for the city, have remained especially quiet during this budget making period.
When you are the city of Everett, here’s what it means to be broke.
It means that there are very likely millions of dollars in the city Treasury to draw from, but that those millions could be gone with the snap of a finger, just like that.
Having $5 or $6 million on hand in a city of this size with heavy expenses to be met from week to week, is like opening a corner store with only enough money in the register on hand to break a $100 dollar Benjamin Franklin.
Break one Benjamin Franklin and you’re out of business.
Everett’s finances are reeling because Encore hasn’t paid their almost $13 million in lieu of tax bill to the city. Neither has the city picked up any revenues, room rental fees from its hotels and motels, which are largely out of business because of the effects of the pandemic on the economy.
One suspects Everett’s finances are reeling without that money. Encore should ultimately pay what it owes but it has not been on time with its payments to the city since the place opened.
That money not being paid on time creates a huge hole, and a great sense of doubt about Encore’s reliability as well as a deficit of sorts that is nearly impossible to work out.
Add to this the imponderables about the state’s reimbursements to the city, and the federal government’s reimbursements to the state.
That scenario sets up the cities and towns here for a potential catastrophe.
The president and the senate president have said that they do not feel the compunction to pay the debts that are run up by blue states overspending themselves.
Everett isn’t a blue state. It is a blue city that basically spends everything it has.
The city could borrow money but then what would happen to the city’s credit rating?
The mayor, his financial chief and the city council need to meet long before September to make sure the city will be capable of honoring all of its financial obligations.
Residents and taxpayers need to ask themselves: how can this possibly be happening here?
Ask the mayor. He’ll have a nice song and dance routine for everyone who asks.