Lawrence is going broke.
And if city and state officials don't take immediate, drastic action, things will get worse. By some estimates, the city could run out of money by March 1.
This should not be a shock.
For months — since August — the state has been warning the city that it had a budget deficit for the current fiscal year in the millions.
The first estimate was $10.9 million. After the city presented a plan to close the gap, the state Department of Revenue said it was smaller, but not by much — down to $9.5 million. Now, even after a second plan proposed by outgoing Finance Director Mark Andrews that he said would reduce the deficit to $1.5 million, the city's legislative delegation says the gap could be as much as $17 million.
Sen. Susan Tucker, D-Andover, said the efforts to eliminate the deficit have failed.
"It's just not fixable," she told reporter Jill Harmacinski.
State Rep. David Torrisi, D-North Andover, said he and other lawmakers are working to get someone from the state to oversee local finances, and to file legislation to allow the city to borrow to cover the deficit.
Those actions are both critical — the city cannot borrow to cover a deficit without legislative authority.
But these things should have been discussed months ago. With the Legislature in informal session, it will take unanimous votes to pass the borrowing legislation. Lawrence needs a plan in place within the next few weeks that will satisfy the DOR, or it will not be able to send out property tax bills on Jan. 1.
Instead, even now, much of the rhetoric is about who, or what, is to blame. Mayor-elect William Lantigua, also a Democratic state representative from Lawrence, complained in a Nov. 16 letter to Gov. Deval Patrick of "chronic mismanagement" by outgoing Mayor Michael Sullivan.
"During the past eight years, Lawrence's current administration has run the city into a deep financial hole," he wrote.
Or, they blame a decrease in state aid, which dropped by $10 million this year.
Such a cut is painful, of course, but there is pain across the entire state and national economy. The nation's recession has been deep and long. Cuts in state aid were predicted, and should not have been a surprise.
Beyond that, it was nearly two years ago, in early 2008, that a state audit warned that the city was headed toward "an inevitable fiscal crisis" unless it implemented drastic reforms.
The crisis is here, and the reforms aren't. Again, this should not surprise anyone. The only way to cure the immediate crisis may be to borrow. But it should be obvious at both the local and state level that this is only a short-term fix. If the city does not cut its spending, it will face a worse crisis next year.
Budget stability must be the top priority for Lantigua when he takes office. And that will mean drastic reforms. This must not be about finding more money. It must be about spending less.
