Menino's Budget takes $45 million from reserves and still closes 4 libraries

Menino lays out $2.5b plan
By Gintautas Dumcius, News Editor DORCHESTER REPORTER
Apr. 15, 2010

Mayor Thomas Menino yesterday laid out a $2.5 billion spending plan for fiscal 2011 that includes

• 250 fewer [city] jobs
• four fewer libraries
• eight fewer community centers
• while expanding education funding and grappling with rising health care costs.

The plan, increasing by 2.5 percent from the fiscal 2010 budget, depends on using $45 million from the city’s reserves.

Make it $48 million from reserves and don't close the libraries.

The mayor also submitted a capital budget that includes funds for renovating

• several school libraries and media labs,
• playgrounds
• courts in nine parks
• a new branch library in East Boston
• resurfacing 21 miles of roadways
• revamping of four Dorchester Ave. intersections, which has become a fixture of the capital budget, also continues

.

On the operating side of the ledger, the city is expecting to receive $20 million less in funding from the state, the city’s second largest revenue source after property taxes. That hole will be covered by revenue from the installation of last year’s meals tax and an increase in the hotel tax, city budget officials said.

The city also sees a $20 million increase, to nearly $300 million, or 12 percent of the budget, in the cost of providing health benefits to city employees and retirees. “It’s bigger than the police budget,” Menino told city councillors at a morning meeting yesterday where he laid out his budget proposals.

So why aren't retirees on medicare?