Newton’s mayor and school committee are at odds, with the schools’ already pared-down budget coming in $2.2 million larger than Mayor Ruthanne Fuller’s allocation.
On Wednesday, the Newton School Committee (NSC) warned that it will either risk legal penalties for moving forward with the unbalanced budget or be forced to cut the difference.
According to Jill Murray Grady, the Newton school district’s attorney, the nature of the liability is not clearly defined, but could include several outcomes.
“We didn’t go down the deep path of what liability that means,” said Grady. “It could be a taxpayer suit, it could be oversight from the state, it could be potentially some sort of criminal prosecution.”
Brezski added that because the NSC has not yet spent any money, it could potentially be shielded from punitive measures. Part of the uncertainty is due to the lack of legal precedent for this issue.
“Clearly, a budget is a forecast, and does not incur any liabilities from that perspective,” Brezski said. “It’s never been interpreted by a court. There’s just no guidance on what that language means.”
Ward 8 NSC Member Barry Greenstein asked if the responsibility could be shifted to city officials, since he said they deprived the NPS of necessary funding with a substandard allocation.
“Could you not argue that the criminality falls on the person not allocating the money that we need?” Greenstein said. “It’s a little too loosey-goosey for me in terms of advice, when I don’t have any sort of indication as to what liability I’m taking on.”
Grady clarified that any legal action would likely be directed at individuals managing funds within NPS, rather than the NSC at large.
“At a minimum, it’s a spotlight that will be put on,” Grady said. “I don’t think it’s intended to be against a committee. Passing a budget isn’t necessarily incurring a liability.”
Nolin explained that, in the event of an unbalanced budget, city officials would prevent it from taking effect.
“We also interacted with the comptroller, just to understand, should the committee decide, let’s hedge our bets and stick with a number higher than the allocation,” said Nolin. “The comptroller cannot actually create a chart of accounts that has numbers higher than the allocation allowed by the city.”
Nolin added that these cuts would be enacted automatically, outside further negotiation with the NSC.
“He would simply reduce the budget by the amount in order to make the numbers comply,” Nolin said. “He could not book a chart of accounts that would allow us to start spending.”
As a result, the nature of the balancing cuts is unclear. Nolin clarified that wages would be protected from any forcible budgetary cuts. All other line items within the NPS budget, however, would be subject to reduction.
“Those salaries are booked and held in abeyance out of the budget, so that a year’s worth of salary … moves forward,” Nolin said. “But at some point, the millions you don’t have will have to be addressed. So we would be faced with a midyear decision to the tune of whatever we didn’t cut right now.”
The NSC could advance its proposed budget and allow the comptroller to enact the requisite cuts. This choice would only burden the NSC with greater fiscal concerns at next year’s budget negotiations, though.
“We can do that, but we’re still going to be in the same spot as we would be here,” said Nolin. “Around about March of next year, I’ll be sweating bullets, because it’ll look like we’re $2 million in the red. That is not a place we want to be.”
Ward 5 Member Emily Prenner emphasized the importance of reaching a decisive conclusion, since various NPS employees stand to lose their jobs under Fuller’s allocation.
“We have a responsibility to let staff know by a certain date about whether or not we will be doing cuts,” Prenner said. “We need to start moving these decisions sooner rather than later, as awful as they are.”
Leave a Reply