Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk, for a number of very good reasons, will be delivering her proposed budget for the coming fiscal year to the City Council relatively late.
So both Kirk and the council may be tempted to rush their deliberations on it with an eye toward approving it before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. But all should take the advice of the council's chief budget official, Councilor Jason Grow, and resist that temptation. It would be better that the budget be late than for the mistakes of the past to be extended for yet another year.
Kirk notified the council that she doesn't expect to submit her budget until at least June 2. That doesn't violate state law — the legal deadline is June 18 — but it would be nearly a month later than former mayor John Bell submitted his budget for the current fiscal year.
Earlier did not mean better, however. Grow told reporter Richard Gaines that Bell's final budget was not balanced, that it lacked detail, was plagued by computer software problems and was difficult to evaluate. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the budgeting process.
Kirk has inherited those problems — she told the council she is not only trying to build a budget that will be balanced and move the city toward fiscal solvency, but also trying to reconcile the books of the two previous years. So if it takes a bit longer to get those problems sorted out, it will still be much better in the long term for the city.
Kirk said, out of necessity, the budget will be balanced with service and personnel cuts — something that will surely produce strong feelings from the advocates of various departments, and lengthy debate.
That is fine. The city needs in-depth debate over its financial priorities. And government will not grind to a halt if the debate is not over on July 1. The city can continue to function month by month, spending at the rate it did the previous year.
Kirk has already imposed a hiring freeze, and said she intends to cut $500,000 from the School Committee's proposed increase of $1 million. The mayor, a former School Committee member, would not be doing that if she did not consider it absolutely necessary.
It is also an indication that she will be presenting a budget that is even-handed, that calls for shared sacrifice without protecting some departments at the expense of others.
Fiscal pain is not pleasant, but if it is shared, it is bearable. The task of the mayor and council will be to make sure that everyone has a chance to be heard on the sacrifices demanded of them.
That will take some time. But as Grow says, this budget should not be a rush job.
If it is done right, it will be much easier to do it right, and on time, in the coming years.
