November 26, 2007
Shop Talk
An Economists' View Of Fitchburg
Lisa Wong is the 28-year-old mayor-elect of Fitchburg. She won 75 percent of the vote in the city election earlier this month against longtime City Councilor Tom Donnelly. Wong has been the director of the Fitchburg Redevelopment Authority and the executive director of the Women's Institute for Housing & Economic Development in Boston.
She is the first minority mayor in Fitchburg's history, one of the youngest, and one of the few women ever elected to the office. Another thing that makes her unusual is her academic background: rather than a lawyer or a career politician, she is an economist.
Lisa Wong, mayor-elect of Fitchburg.You have a master's degree in economics. How relevant do you think what you've studied academically is to addressing concrete issues in the city?
Lisa Wong, mayor-elect of Fitchburg.
I think it's extremely important. The great thing about economics is that not only do you understand finances - you can read the sheets, you know what the numbers are saying - but more importantly economics is the study of how to allocate limited resources. It allows you to factor in a multitude of things in order to make decisions.
How do you feel about being in charge of city department heads who are quite a bit older than you?
I've been executive director of two agencies already. I was first in charge of the Fitchburg Redevelopment Authority after I just turned 24, so I've had extensive dealings with people of all ages, all backgrounds, in many different situations.
What are the very first things you'll do to start dealing with Fitchburg's economic problems and the fiscal crisis the city is dealing with?
The first thing, which is I think very simple but it's difficult to do, is to stop spending money we don't have. The old way of doing this is: if you don't have money, you cut; if you have money, you add. There's more complicated mathematics when it comes to municipal government, especially because you have so many moving pieces.
Do you think the city should eventually have a single tax rate like many other communities do?
Yes. I mean obviously we can't go back in time but we should certainly have kept a single tax rate because it's really hard to go back to once you choose to go to a dual rate. What I advocate for is slight shifts, so that the increment is very small. But actually I also coupled that with decreasing the overall 2 1/2 [percent annual tax levy increase]. I want to set a precedent of not maximizing taxes every year.
You say the Fitchburg Redevelopment Authority brought at least 150 new jobs to the city. How much of a change has that made?
It made a significant difference. General Electric, they lost 600 jobs [when it closed its Fitchburg plant in 1998], so we're well on the way to restoring that. We certainly saw what happened when GE left. That was devastating. We saw restaurants close down, we saw stores close down, we saw subcontractors go out of business.
What's important about those 150 jobs is that they're going to continue to grow. These are companies that are adding jobs, not downsizing.
What's the best thing about Fitchburg that distinguishes it from other communities?
It's really an intersection of many different things. It has that right mix of urban and rural where you still have the mill buildings, you still have the bustling downtown, you still have shopping centers, but you also have bird sanctuaries and cross-country trails.
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