Almost seven weeks into the fiscal year, and we have not seen the City of Everett Budget yet.
One might well ask: “What is this all about?”
Where is that rascal hiding?
Most of the surrounding cities have had their FY2021 spending plans posted for weeks.
No Everett.
A quick comparison of Everett’s budget with Medford’s reveals something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Everett has a population of 46,880 and covers 3.67 square miles.
Medford has a population of 57,765 and covers a land area of 8.66 square miles.
Medford’s FY 2021 total budget is $184,479,028.00, which represents a $2.7 million dollar increase over the FY 2020 amount ($181,786,680.00).
Everett’s total budget is $199,222,537.00 which represents an almost $8,000,000 decrease over the FY 202 budget ($207,199,322.00).
In Everett, positions have been eliminated. Employees have been laid off.
In Medford, no positions have been eliminated. No one has had their salary cut.
Huge swaths of Medford are tax exempt, including the Tufts University campus. Medford does not have a $2.6 billion casino that was supposed to pay the City close to $30,000,000 in lieu of taxes and as a revenue share every twelve months.
What is Medford doing right with so many millions less?
More important and closer to home, why is Everett in such dire financial straits and Medford isn’t?
Why is Everett’s city budget larger than Medford’s by $15 million?
How is it that the city of Everett spends so much more money than Medford?
Why is Medford better off financially than Everett?
That is the question, as Shakespeare would write.