A few quotes from the City Manager's report on Question 1

I posted my notes from last week's City Council discussion on Question 1. I've since gotten the written report the City Manager gave to the Council. A few points of interest:

• Current estimates of the magnitude of this revenue reduction to the Commonweath's budget range from 11 billion (Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation) to 13 billion (Massachusetts Municipal Association). In any event it is safe to assume that if the referendum passes, the Commonwealth's revenue stream, which funds its annual budget, will be reduced by approximately 40%.
• (M)any organizations have attempted to model the potential State revenue reductions and the resultant effect on State aid to cities and towns. Each came to the same conclusion: the proposed elimination of the State income tax will lead to draconian reductions in State aid to the Commonwealth's 351 cities and towns on both the municipal and public school portions of local budgets. The City anticipates receiving $258 million in state aid in FY09 to support municipal and school services. This is 52% of our combined operating budgets. Reasonable assumptions result in reductions in the range of 63% for municipal state aid and up to 40% for educational aid for our City. This would equate to reductions on the municipal programs of $40- 50 million and up to $72 million in school spending.
• It is a fair and reasonable assumption that this level of State Aid reduction will cause us to eliminate core services across the spectrum. These potential realities speak for themselves.

As the Manager said last week, if a department is cut by 75%, they'll just close the department and eliminate that service.