Maintaining our Financial Strength

To the Editor:

What will empower us as a city in the future is maintaining our financial strength. This requires careful decision making within the framework of continuously refined multi-year budget plans. This was the method used recently to evaluate the tax/fiscal impact of the possible school bond issue scenarios.

At our last meeting, we examined the Charter Amendment concerning reserve funds and the potential uses of restricted and unrestricted fund accounts.

Given that we have decided not to synchronize our tax year, we are now focusing on the necessary amount to have in a reserve fund to safeguard our ability to procure TANS (Tax Anticipation Notes) in the future when the economy changes.

We currently have approximately 35M in cash, an investment grade bond rating and are in an overall strong position financially. During this transitional term to our new form of government, we established what proved to be a very successful Charter Review Commission and worked well and constructively with our School Committee.

Notwithstanding the challenges which exist now and lie ahead, I am optimistic about our City’s future.

James A. Briden
Mayor & At-Large Councilman