FALL RIVER — Last week the City Council heard a warning from the administration that there could be a possible $4.7 million gap in the upcoming fiscal 2021 budget, but Mayor Paul Coogan said there are still a number of factors to be determined before the notion of a shortfall is a concern.
“We haven’t touched the surplus, we’ve not made cuts and we haven’t made reductions and we still have to determine marijuana revenue and figure out new growth,” said Coogan. “We still have a lot to do with the budget. We’ll be sitting down and going over it line by line. It was a forecast, a worst-case scenario.”
Director of Financial Services Mary Sahady made the suggestion of the gap last week during a City Council finance meeting during a presentation of the city’s five-year financial forecast.
Sahady said the fiscal 2021 budget takes into consideration a 2½% tax increase.
Indicating the new budget is still a work in progress and that she was making “conservative revenue projections," Sahady said she has not factored in the tax revenues from the city’s newest recreational marijuana facility — Hope, Heal, Health — that she said could potentially mean $1 million in revenue.
Sahady said with the city in contract negotiations with fire, police and the Teamster unions, the outcomes could also influence a budget gap.
Another factor in her prediction is the loss of approximately $2.3 million in revenue after former Mayor Jasiel Correia II did away with the pay-as-you-throw program in January 2019 as he faced a recall election in March.
“We eliminated it because it was the most politically expedient thing to do, so we lost $2.3 million in revenue,” said City Councilor Shawn Cadime, who has been a consistent critic of suspending the PAYT program. “If we kept that, the revenue alone … could have funded Durfee high school building project.”
Sahady agreed.
The debt exclusion that will override Proposition 2½ to fund the bond funding to build the new B.M.C. Durfee High School is not set to begin until fiscal year 2023.
However, Sahady said the payment for the high school project funding is approximately $3.2 million in the 2021 budget.
“We are not anticipating, at least at this point, to be putting it on the tax bills,” said Sahady.
Last April, after barely making it through the recall election and facing what was a successful challenge from Coogan in November, Correia attempted to start the debt exclusion in the 2020 budget. He was not successful after pushback from the City Council and School Committee.
Sahady said health care claims in 2020 have also been trending higher.
City Councilor Trott Lee asked Sahady if the city is being run on a “bare bones” budget “and there isn’t waste in government.”
Sahady said the proposed 2021 budget reflects what department heads have indicated is needed in their budgets.
“The mayor and I will be meeting with each of the department heads and the division heads and looking at what they believe their needs are and making sure that they are truly bare boned. You are 100% correct there are instances where there are some 'wants' in the budget and not necessarily 'needs.' They will be sliced from the budget before the appropriation order comes to you,” said Sahady.
Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com.