A few municipal budget notes

To answer your first question:

"While this increase will not fully eliminate the current Net School Spending deficit, it represents significant progress..."

...from page 2 of the City Manager's budget memo to Worcester City Council tonight.
Thus, the $1.1 million cited throughout both WPS and CoW's budgets for "above minimum" school spending is only for FY15; it doesn't include the carryover from previous fiscal years. You probably remember that at last check-in the city was $2.75 million under minimum school spending; that gets carried over to the next fiscal year. If you're looking for numbers on that, check page 375 of the FY15 Worcester Public Schools budget for the full calculation (note that it's from the adopted budget; changes since October (?) aren't in this); it's in excess of $2 million.
(I'm also just going to point out here that I'm impressed that this is said right up front by City Manager Augustus, and we're not going to have a round of "whose numbers are we using?" this year. Thank you, sir!) 
Remember that the City is responsible as well for the Worcester Public Schools' capital budget; the recommended allocations for that are on page 101 of our FY15 budget. So relieved to see a snowblower!
As Nicole has already noted this morning, the full City of Worcester FY15 budget is now posted online. The City Council begins budget deliberations next Tuesday (I have a schedule; I'll post which departments they are covering when), so this is the week to read through it and get in touch with your councilors. You can find their contact information at the right.