Medford Happenings

Reposted from – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575246882228

“I know there’s people that are not happy with the override[s]. I know there’s people that can’t afford it.” – The Mayor, May 27, 2025 Regular Meeting of the City Council

In this clip, from the June 24, 2024 meeting of the City Council, Nick is speaking on another request from the mayor for a free cash appropriation. This time it was $8,000,000.00 from our balance of over $20,000,000.00 for capital improvements. The request indicated the money would be used for street and sidewalk improvements, Oak Grove Cemetery repairs, and equipment and vehicles.

The ballot question regarding DPW override money sought $500,000.00 for “additional staff for road and sidewalk infrastructure repair.”

The million-dollar (or $500,000.00) question is why taxes had to be raised to accommodate a $500,000.00 need for DPW hiring when we had many millions of dollars in free cash that could have been used instead?

Was our city’s bond rating at risk if we appropriated this money from free cash? Councilor George Scarpelli asked the Mayor’s Chief of Staff this question directly. She expressed no such concerns that the $8,000,000.00 appropriation would adversely affect our bond rating. So $500,000.00 at the time of the overrides would have?

Another Councilor, who accused Nick of wasting the Council’s time for raising his concerns at the meeting and delaying discussions on a paper pertinent to international relations, attempted to make the distinction that the $8,000,000.00 would be for onetime expenses while the $500,000.00 was for the recurring expense of paying salaries, and that we cannot use free cash for anything more than onetime expenses.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) merely certifies how much a city has in free cash. Certification does not turn on how a city intends to spend its certified free cash. While DOR guidelines suggest that cities avoid using free cash for anything more than onetime expenditures, ultimately, it’s the city’s decision on how it wishes to spend its free cash. The rationale behind this advice is protecting the city’s bond rating. If too much free cash is spent too quickly, the city’s bond rating will be adversely affected.

Supporters of overriding Proposition 2 1/2 did not make this subtle distinction on free cash widely known. Free cash was ruled off the table entirely as a viable alternative, which mislead the public into thinking it was a non-option.

So ask yourselves, residents: If the $8,000,000.00 appropriation approved by the Counsel by a vote of 5-2 did not raise concerns about our city’s credit, why did $500,000.00 at the time of the overrides? Note that we had millions of more in free cash at the time of the overrides, spent down to about $20,000,000.00 subsequently. No studies were done before the vote on how our bond rating would be impacted, if at all, if free cash were used as a substitute.

Raising taxes should be our last resort, not our first. As acknowledged by the Mayor, Medford residents are hurting as a result of the decision to hike taxes in Medford. Vote for a candidate who is going to conclusively rule out every alternative to raising taxes to meet funding needs before he even starts thinking about increasing your tax bill.

You can read the DOR’s white paper on free cash here: https://www.mass.gov/…/the-importance-of-free…/download