It was noted to me yesterday that one of the first thing one should do when a city says it simply can't make net school spending is look at their free cash report to the Mass Department of Revenue. As you might know, "free cash" is what is leftover for a municipality at the end of the fiscal year. While for our family budgets not spending all we have is good, free cash instead means that the community didn't budget effectively the funds it received (the city budgets allocations for what would be "savings" for a person).
Because charts are handy, here's Worcester's for fiscal years 2018-2023 (which is as recently as DOR reports; FY24 would be last year):
Because the Council, as I said last night, can't actually add money to the city budget unless they send the whole budget back to the City Manager (highly unlikely!), the only way that Worcester can "make up" for the not meeting required spending for schools is through moving free cash in the fall, as happened this year.
Should Worcester met required spending this current year (due to that transfer), note nonetheless:
- a) as any district asked will tell you, a dollar in November or December isn't a dollar in July--you aren't, for example, likely going to hire a teacher in December!--and
- b) this is just not good budgeting. The city has enough money to meet the legal obligation for schools. It just isn't doing so.
This isn’t free cash it’s not paying your bills
And let's note, by the way, that this isn't new, so this isn't a majority of the council question*. It just isn't brought up at all by anyone.
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*Yes, this is aimed at those who might want to make it an election issue. If you've had a vote, you're on the hook.
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