In this year's community budgeting process, we are going to focus on four areas that align with community values: arts and culture, recreation, public health, and civic engagement (including immigrant outreach). To help you put this all in context, we have put together a few resources that will allow you to dive deep into the data and give your feedback...
The buget is a complex system. Check out the data below and attend a meeting to learn more about it.
Making decisions on important city policies without data is like driving with a blindfold on. Our Key System Indicators summarize the broader context in which budgeting decisions are made.
The Mayor and his team are inviting everyone to attend a community budgeting meeting to give their input on four key investment areas.
We hope the budget meetings will result in a host of bright ideas on where we should invest. We'll want your input on which ones are best for Somerville.
The City of Somerville raised and expended $195 million in FY2014. The majority of the City's revenue (63%) comes from property taxes; aid from the state is a distant second (24%). The City spends over 75% of its operating budget on four categories of expenditures: the schools, public safety, public works, and the pensions and benefits of employees.
State aid, also known as local aid, is money distributed to cities and towns from the state government to help municipalities fund vital local services. In Somerville, this source of revenue dropped by nearly 40% between FY2013 and FY2000. Adjusting for inflation, state aid was down 57% in FY2013 compared to FY2000. If state aid had just kept pace with inflation each year since FY2000, the City would have received $323 million more over the 13-year period.
As state aid has declined, the City has had to rely more heavily on property taxes to fund its operations. Nonetheless, the City maintains a generous property tax exemption for residents, and Somerville has some of the lowest property taxes in the area when the exemption is factored in.
General fund expenditures essentially kept pace with inflation between FY2005, Mayor Curtatone's first budget year, and FY2013: spending growth averaged 2.3% per year during this period, while inflation averaged 2.1% per year. Despite initiating very little new spending over the past eight years, the City has expanded services, constantly seeking to do more with less.