Happy Juneteenth National Independence Day! This week’s Brockton City Council FY25 Budget Hearings are paused for today’s holiday, and will resume tomorrow night at 6:00pm.
How simple City budgeting must have been when Brockton children were educated in its Little Red Schoolhouse.
By City Charter, the City Council’s great responsibility is to approve an annual city budget that balanced projected annual revenue and expenses. We began the process on Monday evening.
Last night’s Council budget hearing focused on the budget proposed for Brockton Public Schools (“BPS”). As many are aware, the City has been facing grave financial challenges as the result of BPS overspending its FY24 budget by a reported $14.4 Million Dollars, and perhaps even more. Late last night, the City Council was forced to empty the City Savings Account to satisfy the School’s deficit spending.
As the result of the deficiencies, Council members have been ‘deep diving’ into BPS finances. The overstaffing and overspending disclosed has been eye opening.
To compensate for the School’s deficit spending, City departments trimmed FY25 budget proposals three times, and are down to bare bones.
Last week after agreeing to a nearly $226.8 Million Dollar budget amount with the Finance Department that balanced the proposed City budget, the School Committee went back on its word to approve an additional 5.9 million dollars in its budget. These additional funds are not included in the budget order being considered by the City Council.
It is troubling to not see BPS belt tightening like the city departments were forced by BPS deficits to do. It is surprising and disappointing to see the School Committee members act this way.
Brockton children deserve a good public education. I wish it was as simple as approving more funds for the kids. By law, the City Council cannot increase or reallocate budget amounts.
I urge all city residents to watch last night’s meeting, and to review the proposed City and BPS budgets posted on the City website. Thanks for reading this long, necessary post.