Where do you come up with $3.7 million?

That's the quandry facing Worcester City Manager O'Brien and the Worcester City Council, as that's how much we've lost under the state budget. His proposal to the Council on tomorrow night's agenda works as follows:

• Dealing with the Quinn Bill outfall $1.6 million: the Manager has two suggestions on making this work. We can either renegotiate the contract with the police officers' unions (there are two), or we can raise taxes to make up the half that the state cut. He's keeping option C, cutting the work force (in particular, police) more, off the table (or, as he says, "last resort") for safety reasons. It will be interesting to see where this one goes.
• Local option taxes $1.7 million: This is the hotel and meals taxes, which will raise meal taxes by 3/4% and hotel rooms by 2%.
  
• savings from the lack of a preliminary election: $150,000: largely poll workers and police overtime
  
• reduction of the 9C reserves for next year: $250,000

Tune in tomorrow at 5 pm to see where this one goes!