City Grapples With Economic Uncertainty
Dean Mazzarella
This past year has tested the fortitude and ingenuity of local leaders across the commonwealth. With one round of budget cuts behind us, another on the way, and a state budget that holds little promise of even level funding of local aid, we are faced with finding alternative funding sources or making cuts in an already tight budget.
Leominster will face the deepening fiscal crisis in the same way we faced the history making ice storm last month — by departments working together to garner every possible resource. And, we will work on three goals: finding innovative ways to fund city programs, working to maintain and expand our current tax base, and implementing our long term plans to decrease daily city expenses.
Staffing Levels
Since I took office in 1994, the City of Leominster has added only a handful of positions. Departments have done yeoman’s work to address the needs of a growing community at the same staffing levels that have existed for more than 15 years.
Decreasing personnel would be devastating to city services and therefore will be a last resort. Recognizing the need to pull in other sources of revenue, the city recently hired a grant writer who will be charged with not just developing a priority list of capital projects for possible state, federal and private funding but will work with department heads to develop an inventory of needs that can potentially be met by private sources of funding.
The ultimate goal will be to match these alternative sources of funding with line items currently in the city’s general budget to take these items off-budget over the next two years.
It is no secret when the state budget is cut. The headlines are immediate and obvious. Less obvious is the slow toll that foreclosures and the loss of local businesses take on city revenues.
My office and organizations at the state and local level are working diligently to provide assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure. On the business side, our economic development team is planning several initiatives to help businesses weather the fiscal storm.
Small Business Focus
In early spring, the city will be hosting a small business seminar to bring financial, management and marketing assistance to our local companies. We are also currently exploring the idea of starting a small business incubator for new ideas and those existing home-based businesses looking to share resources under one roof.
Our small businesses are not just a source of tax revenue. They are our neighbors, our friends, our families and make up the heart of our community. Their continued presence is key to the future success of the city.
The city also continues to work on long-term solutions to saving money on basic municipal services. Currently, we are working on an energy audit that will produce solutions to rising energy costs across all municipal buildings. Anticipated changes in energy use will not just have a dramatic effect on spending, but will reduce the city’s carbon footprint.
We have worked hard to build a stabilization account and develop an efficient and effective local government. Even with all our planning, the anticipated cuts will be challenging. With all of us working together, I am confident we can steer through this fiscal storm and emerge an even stronger community.
Mazzarella is the mayor of Leominster. He can be reached at dmazzarella@leominster-ma.gov.
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