***************

Don't forget the SHS
Scholarship Foundation drawing this week on the 8th at the High School
at the Highland Café at 7 pm Р24 prizes and door prizes with a grand
prize of $10k.

***************

Well known and former
community activist Annette Wiswall was at the Brune breakfast last
Sunday and it was nice seeing her there even after all the hospital
stays and operations over the past several months, she is bouncing back
and looks very good. Annette and her husband Allan were very involved
in the community going back to the early 70's and she didn't need to
hang her hat on a label other then trying to make Somerville a better
place to live.

***************

Looks like at least one
PDSer will have competition for re-election this year, word about town
is well known Somerville pundit Jimmy Campano is seriously thinking of
making a run against Princess Rebekah of Ward 6. We also hear that at
least one and possible two of the PDSers on the School Committee will
be facing competition this year as well.

***************

Condolences
to the family and friends of Angelo Polito who sadly passed away last
week. Angelo was a nice person and he will be missed, he also is the
dad of Police Lt. Jim Polito.

***************

A get well
soon out to Joyce Murphy who is at home recovering after a brief stay
at Beth Israel Hospital. We hear that her husband Larry is a good cook,
so at least she on the mend and will be back to good health soon!

***************

Congratulations
to Somerville firefighter and Local 78 President Jay Corbett who was
elected last week to serve as legislative agent for the Professional
Firefighters of MA. Jay will join Boston Firefighters President Ed
Kelly as the two legislative agents, and will represent the statewide
union that includes 12,000 firefighters from across Massachusetts on
legislative issues.

***************

Speaking of the local
fire fighters we hear that a resolution was proposed and sponsored by
10 Aldermen to support our local fire firefighters, guess Rebekah from
Ward 6 didn't sign the resolution.

***************

Yellow
journalism is alive and well over at the PDS camp, we hear not only are
they calling themselves journalists but now they want to raise money to
pay someone to investigate the so called corrupt politicians here in
Somerville – whoever they are at the moment. Maybe they should spend
money more wisely on being more positive here in the community instead
of tearing everything apart!

***************

Congressman
Mike Capuano is having a local fundraiser this Friday night over at
Sagra in Davis Square – Mike has always been down to earth and we can
be lucky to have one of our own as our Congressman, he's a straight
shooter and never been bashful.

***************

There
will be a free parent workshop presented by Dr. Jill Kasper of the
Broadway Health Center on Physical Changes: Early childhood through
middle school including puberty. The workshop will be held in the
Winter Hill Community School library on May 19th from 6 pm to 8 pm.
Pizza will be served and a door prize will be given out at each
session. This workshop is open to all families in the Somerville Public
Schools. Free child care is available. RSVP is required – e-mail the
PTA at winterhillpta@yahoo.com or leave a message at 617-625-9310.

***************

The
2009 All City Elementary Spring Concert will be next Thursday, May 14th
at 7 pm in the Somerville High Auditorium (81 Highland Ave). This is
always a terrific show and we encourage everyone to try and make it –
tickets will be available at the door.

***************

The
Executive Office of Transportation, the City of Cambridge and City
Councilor and State Representative Tim Toomey are sponsoring a
community meeting to discuss the relocation of Lechmere Station and the
Green Line Extension Project. The meeting will feature presentations on
the overall Green Line Extension as well as specifics about the new
Lechmere Station and associated roadway changes including multiple new
pedestrian crossings of McGrath/O'Brien Highway. The meeting will be
held on, Wednesday May 20th from 6 – 8 PM at the Kennedy-Longfellow
School Auditorium, 158 Spring Street Cambridge.

***************

The
Annual Mystic River Herring Run (5K) and Paddle will be Sunday, May
17th at 9am at the DCR Blessing of the Bay Boathouse, 32 Shore Drive,
Somerville, MA. $20 for run or paddle race, $30 for both. T-shirt
included if pre-registered. Run, walk and/or paddle with the fish! Race
along a flat and fast (USATF certified) course on the
Medford/Somerville Mystic River bike path, dashing past thousands of
herring returning from the ocean back to the Mystic River. Or hop in
your canoe or kayak and paddle up the river following the herring up
toward the Mystic Lakes following a 3 mile or 12 mile course. Compete
in both races & be eligible for the coveted Iron Herring award for
the male and female with the fastest overall time in the 5K & the
12 mile paddle. This is a great opportunity for all ages to enjoy the
Mystic in one of its urban jewel settings. Register at mysticriver.org
or for more information, contact: Kim Provo of the Mystic River
Watershed Association – www.mysticriver.org – 781-316-3438

Earlier
that day, Gov. Deval Patrick announced state revenues in April fell
more than $450 million below what had been predicted – adding another
hurdle as some city officials continue to raise concerns about the data
the city is working from.

"We're trying to build a house on
shifting sands here," Ward 7 Aldermen Bob Trane said at an April 28
budget hearing held by both the Board of Aldermen and the School
Committee. "We need to get some clarification from our leaders on
Beacon Hill."

In January, the city was confronted with a $3
million shortfall when Patrick announced mid-year aid cuts to the
FY2009 budget. The FY2010 budget, which begins July 1, is also expected
to face mid-year cuts – with the exact amount of aid a constantly
changing number as the State Legislature moves toward finalizing a
budget.

The projected deficit for FY2010, according to the mayor's office, is between "$7 – $11+ million."

Among
the recommendations presented to the Board of Aldermen and School
Committee on May 4 were one week furloughs for police officers and
other city personnel, and increasing the premium city employees must
pay for their health insurance.

Curtatone said the plan calls
for $4.79 million in total cuts from payroll, health insurance
contributions, and pension plan adjustments.

In addition to
the cuts, the plan calls for an increase in parking fines and meter
fees, and for parking permits to be issued citywide. The revamped fees
will bring in an estimated $2.39 million in additional revenue.

Some
of the proposals echoed residents' suggestions given at the April 28
public forum, where ideas ranged from increasing parking ticket fees to
consolidating 911 call centers

At that meeting, Superintendent
Tony Pierantozzi noted that two thirds of students live at or below the
poverty line, and that among the suggested school budget cuts
introducing activities fees was among the worst options.

"A
longstanding tenet in the Somerville public schools is that fees do not
belong," he said. "What fees would do for us is create a bifurcated
system: those who can afford things and those who cannot."

Human
Rights Commission co-chair Cesar Urrunaga asked why Curtatone would
support a sales tax increase when "it hurts those who don't make a lot
of money more." Curtatone later said while he lacked faith in the
Legislature to provide long term solutions to the budget deficit, the
city should take what it offers.

"I'll be the first hypocrite in
line to take that money for our city," Curtatone said. "There are very
few people on Beacon Hill who have a clue what it takes to run a
municipality."

A report from a financial advisory committee
assembled by Curtatone to analyze the city's budget options was
expected Tuesday as the Somerville News went to press.

The recommendations for the FY2010 city budget can be found at www.somervillema.gov/spotlight.cfm?id=73.

But
there comes a "tipping point" where the rational opinion in this space
is in dire need of a "Reality Bites" type of infusion. And we resist
that, for the most part.

The problem is, that there is this
undercurrent of craziness flowing through this city – being propagated
by a certain group, okay, just a few members of that certain group. You
would like to assume that they act a little crazy with at least the
best of intentions – for example – the Mystic View Task Force. Think
they're a little "off the reservation"? Well we used to, but then it
sunk in – they did have good intentions, and in the end, it all worked
out.

It's hard for us to be able to stomach what's been
happening here in the 'ville recently by this small segment of this
little so-called "activist" group. Time goes by, and you want to
believe, Hell – we want to believe – that they have the best interests
of the community as a whole at heart, but they just disappoint every
time. It's a shame, because this very community over the past 40 to 50
years has grown in immeasurable ways as a result of organized activism.

History,
even local history, has shown that a few can ruin the reputation of
many. This is true today in this tiny little group of people – we dare
not even label them with a moniker – fearing it might give them any
remote sense of being.

Can't figure out who we are referring to? Oh come on – well, alright – we will give you a couple of hints.

They
get elected to office with a song and dance, chanting things like
"transparency" and "open government for all" and then hold "secret
meetings" and only invite a few select people.

They call
themselves journalists – which is insulting to those people who work in
that declining industry – and they have the audacity to call an email
interaction between a "nut" and an elected official an "interview."

They
call for the end of name calling – but then in seemingly the very next
breath – call those people names in an effort to gain some kind of
warped respectability.

They call themselves followers of faith,
but then suggest to eliminate one of the most important holy days in
the Christian faith from the public school calendar.

They call
themselves historians and want to profess their intimate knowledge of
all things Somerville – but they have no clue about history, tradition,
respect – when some of their own "kind" call such an important holiday
in our country's history an "annoying holiday."

Still can't
figure it out who "they" are yet? Good – then you are untainted by the
lunacy dear reader. For the rest of us who have lived here our whole
lives, and will live here the rest of our lives, we will be here long
after the nuts are gone. Thank God.

Curtatone reported that the city faces a 6 to 10
million dollar deficit this next fiscal year, which begins on June 1,
but maintained that Somerville is "in pretty decent shape," noting that
the prospective budget cuts are not going to be worse than they were
under Governor Romney.

Curtatone spoke of the need to diversify
Somerville's sources of revenue, and not to keep "all our eggs in one
basket". Currently, the city's main revenue sources are state aid,
taxes, and fines and fees.

There will also be reductions in
expenditures, he said. Since 78% of Somerville's $165M budget is spent
on personnel, savings may be obtained from increasing health care
contributions for state employees, wage freezes, furloughs, and
consolidation of employees, as well as hiring and overtime
restrictions, and restrictive purchasing policies. In line with this
statement, the city announced on Monday that Somerville officers
holding the rank of sergeant and higher have agreed to a three-year
contract with a zero percent pay increase, one week furlough, and 15%
increase in health care contributions.

The city is also looking
at opportunities to increase revenue, which the mayor said might come
from parking enforcement changes and selling or leasing city-owned
properties.

Curtatone emphasized that cuts will be in line
with the city's policy goals. So what won't be cut? According to
Curtatone, anti-gang programs, career initiatives, and library funding
will stay put. "The last thing we need is teens with nothing to do," he
said of his plans to maintain the Mayor's Summer Jobs Program, which
helps youths find summer employment in the community. He also noted the
importance of maintaining funding for education.

Some steps the
mayor hopes to complete will require the cooperation of external
agents, such as the regionalization of service delivery. Curtatone
mentioned that for such a large state, it is not yet taking advantage
of economies of scale.

The distribution of stimulus funds was
also addressed by the mayor, and brought up during the question and
answer period that followed the presentation.

"We need the go
ahead on the stimulus," the mayor said of the status of the Assembly
Square project, which both he and Senator Kerry called "shovel-ready"
back in February when they visited the site. A city-funded road needs
to be in place before the construction of the IKEA site can begin, he
said. The mayor, along with a couple audience members, expressed dismay
that stimulus funds seem to be going toward repaving projects over
"smart growth" projects such as that in Assembly Square, which will
have a lasting economic impact on the community in terms of revenue and
employment. Curtatone again praised Assembly Square as a model stimulus
project, saying that since there has been a 50% decline in economic
value of such development projects, augmenting private funding with
stimulus money can help keep beneficial smart growth projects on track.

One repaving project that was acknowledged to be badly needed,
however, is Washington Street. The bickering seems to continue over
whether Boston is going to pay to repave it, as it pledged to following
the installation of the I-93 off-ramp. The Charlestown portion of the
street was repaved in recent weeks, but stops just short of the Holiday
Inn, with significant potholes marking the beginning of Somerville.
Curtatone said that he is pushing for it to be put back into Boston's
budget, since it would free up Somerville funds to go toward other
important areas.

"Collaboration
is key to helping kids, families and schools be school ready," says
Davidson. Most of the funding for this event was given in the form of a
grant, the Quality Full-day Kindergarten Grant, given by the
Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. The goal of this
meeting was to decide how to make the transition from preschool to
kindergarten easier for both kids and parents. Tony Pierantozzi,
Superintendent of Somerville Public Schools, gave a small speech. "Here
in Somerville, we're lucky because our legislative delegation has
always supported early childhood activities," Pierantozzi said to the
people gathered there. He reminded them to be proud of the city they
live in, and to get the word out about the good things in Somerville
"not only involving school-age children and young adults, but
throughout the city in general. It's a city that's coming; it's a city
that's changing dramatically."

Cory Mashburn, a presenter,
talked about his parent-navigator program. "We speak to the parents of
Somerville that are bilingual and we discuss mental health services
with them." These parents are encouraged to go through training in
order to make themselves better aware if their child is in need of
psychiatric help or drug rehabilitation. In the course of a few hours,
Mashburn, like all the other presenters, travels to several small
tables promoting his plan. "It's our version of speed dating," jokes
Pamela Holmes, one of the facilitators of the meeting.

Dr.
John Lippitt, who worked many years in the Massachusetts Department of
Public Health, spoke of his organization, Thrive in 5 Boston. This is
an organization whose primary objective is to make sure kids are ready,
able and willing to succeed in school and to change the perception in
society, so it is more accommodating to each child's success in school.
"The healthy development of all young children…benefits all of
society by providing a solid foundation for responsible citizens…"
Ensuring a child's success, says Lippitt, is done in open forums just
like this one the Dante Club where parents and educators and academics
can have a healthy discussion and, in time, try to make solutions for
the consistent problems of teaching bilingual children, children with
special needs or children who may have mental health issues. Standing
in the way of solving these problems is a lack of funding. "When we
invaded Iraq, the government didn't worry about money; when it bailed
out the financial industry, the same. So when they say we don't have
money, don't take no for an answer," says Lippitt to heavy applause.

Daniel
Dessin, a parent in Somerville in attendance at this meeting, says "I'm
just coming to learn how I can make it an easier transition for my
kids."

Spring
has arrived, and Somerville residents living near I-93, McGrath
Highway, and Mystic Avenue wake up each morning to hear the
birds…coughing. Our fair city is unusually burdened by the major
roadways that pass through it and their impacts on our health.

Many
observers have speculated that these impacts account for why we have
the highest rate per square mile of excessive heart disease and lung
cancer deaths among Massachusetts' 351 cities and towns. Yet, we smoke
less and have no industrial air pollution sources.

Now, a $2.5
million study called the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and
Health (CAFEH) will attempt to determine whether, and how much, roadway
pollution is affecting Somerville residents. Tufts University
researchers will collect air samples in neighborhoods near I-93. They
will randomly select neighborhood residents, extensively interview
them, collect blood samples to identify inflammatory markers, and
follow them for five years.

Concerns about highway pollution are
not new to Somervillians, nor have we been naïve. Almost 40 years ago,
East Somerville residents formed Somerville Citizens for Adequate
Transportation to oppose I-93 cutting through the heart of their
neighborhood, and then to persuade the Commonwealth to build below the
surrounding grade.

State officials refused on both counts.
They did promise to build a barrier between the expressway and the
neighborhood, and to plant trees along it. They did neither.

At
the time, Governor John Volpe's administration commissioned a study to
forecast I-93's air quality impacts in Somerville. Researchers found
that it would create air pollution as much as ten times higher than
federally allowable limits. The study was never made public.

What
the researchers did not know was that tiny particles produced by
vehicles are much deadlier and much more local in their impact than the
pollutants that were studied. There are as many as 1.6 million fine and
ultrafine particles in every cubic inch of vehicle exhaust. When
inhaled, most are retained deep in the lungs or passed into the
bloodstream and transmitted to the heart and brain.

In the years
since I-93's construction, over 2,000 scientific papers have studied
particles and their health impacts. Among their findings are that
people living within 100 meters (325 feet) of a major highway have a
death rate from lung cancer, heart attacks, and other cardiopulmonary
diseases that is 95% higher than that of the national population.

Because
younger kids have developing organs, a higher metabolism, and
proportionately more air sacs in their lungs, they absorb twice the
particles that adults do. Those who live near highways tend to develop
only 80% of their lung capacity or less.

The Mystic View Task
Force in the late 1990s took up the work begun by Somerville Citizens
for Adequate Transportation. They not only objected to squandering
substantial tax- and job-creation opportunities on the development of
big-box stores. They were also concerned about the impacts of the
enormous traffic increases created by those stores on neighbors' health
and wellbeing.

Instead of protecting citizens' interests, city
government violated its own laws to favor developers. Mystic View
brought a series of successful lawsuits. One outcome of the resulting
settlement agreement was a development plan that reduced projected
vehicle trips from 100,000 to 50,000 per day, a reduction equal to the
I-93 capacity increase created by the big dig.

Another of the
settlement's outcomes was Federal Real Estate Investment Trust's
commitment to fund a $50,000 study to measure the amount and location
in Somerville of the deadly particles produced by I-93. It found very
high levels of ultrafines close to the expressway and especially
downwind, which is usually on the Ten Hills side.

The Tufts
research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will now study
what impacts those particle concentrations are having on neighbors'
health. The Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP), along
with community groups from Chinatown and South Boston, collaborated in
writing and submitting the study's funding application, and they will
help to oversee its execution.

STEP President Ellin Reisner
explains that their intent is not just to measure the amount and kind
of pollutants in Somerville air, but to determine pollutants' impacts
on neighbors' health. Everyone on the eastern side of the city knows
someone who has suffered from asthma, emphysema, heart disease, or lung
cancer. But we need to know how common this is and whether it can be
explained by factors such as preexisting conditions and other sources
of exposure to pollutants.

The research team does not want to
alarm people about conditions that have already existed for decades.
Instead, they want to develop solid evidence that can be a basis for
policy makers' and ordinary citizens' efforts to improve health
conditions.

There is little point in worrying about what we
cannot control. But working together to identify and undertake actions
that can really make a difference will increase the wellbeing of us all.

Currently,
Grafton is involved in a project called Shift Across America. He
defines the purpose of his new project as, "A unique and exciting way
for the Local Movement to continue to grow." The "road trip will tell
the story of the Shift happening in communities around our country. It
will document the Local Independent Business, Music, and Art movement
across America."

The Weekly Dig, as well as Somerville Local
First, will sponsor the journey, which will commence on approximately
May 14 and will span an estimated two and 1/2 weeks.

However, additional finances are needed for Grafton to embark on his ambitious trek.

Therefore,
a fundraiser on May 8 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 242 East Berkeley Street
in Somerville will take place. It is not necessary to R. S. V.P. to
this event, and entry, food, and beer are free. The Board President of
SLF, the Publisher of the Dig, and Grafton will speak.

Individuals
will be encouraged to make a donation. Grafton estimates that the cost
of the trip will range from $3,500 and $4,500.

To round out the
evening, photography, which Grafton took himself will be available. He
foresees that it will be "a great conversation piece" will also be
sold. "Folks can see the artist installation for the month, at
www.space242.com."

Categorically, the photos deal with
landscape, still life, event photography and the Local Independent
Movement/10% Shift. Prints, custom matted, will be obtainable from
$100, according to him.

Would you like to discover more about
Shift Across America? When his journey begins, Grafton will jump into
his personal vehicle and spread the Shift's message to a handful of
cities, nationwide. Although he will be cruising in such a mode of
transportation, he "will be offsetting the environmental impact of the
trip." He is considering planting a tree in each city.

His trip
will commence in Somerville. Then, he will pay the following cities a
visit: Cambridge, Boston, and Worcester, Portsmouth NH, Laconia NH,
Burlington VT, Portland ME, multiple towns in Blackstone Valley RI –
Portsmouth, Middletown and Newport, Albany NY, Buffalo NY, Grand Rapids
MI, Chicago IL, Denver CO, Salt Lake City UT, San Francisco, Oakland,
and Berkeley CA. Phoenix AZ, Santa Fe NM, Austin TX, Brewton AL,
Charleston SC, Baltimore MD, and Philadelphia PA will complete his
journey.

Further, "The purpose of this project is to help people
see that there is a tremendous amount of work and success happening to
revitalize our communities across America. Through work with SLF &
the 10% Shift, I have had the great fortune to connect with many of
these leaders. I want the readers to realize that we are at an apex of
social change, that we are not alone in our desire for a more
sustainable and equitable economy," said Grafton.

"This idea
started because of the National BALLE conference, which will take place
in Denver [from May 21 to May 23]." At that conference, he will be
presented with the opportunity to engage in conversation and swap
ideas, pertaining to the Shift, with other involved "Local
Independents."

There, he will meet and interview some of the
leading directors of Local Business Networks, Local Independent
Business owners, Alternative Media Publishers, High Performing
Musicians and Artists. After that stop, he will be able to recount
their stories in the remaining cities and hopes that others realize the
importance of the Shift, according to a press release.

Finally,
"creative arts have played a vital role in most recent social shifts.
Around the country artists and musicians are doing incredible work to
build sustainable and more connected communities," said Grafton.

Individuals
who are unable to attend this event but are interested in sending a
donation to the organization may to donate send a check to: Somerville
Local First c/o Shift Across America PO Box 402 Somerville, MA 02143.

This is the first – and so far, the only – case of H1N1 flu in Somerville.

The
patient experienced no complications and did not require
hospitalization. She is already fully recovered and has passed through
what is expected to be her contagious period.

She wisely
isolated herself as soon as her symptoms appeared, and she reported her
symptoms to her primary care provider, who alerted state officials and
ordered appropriate screening tests.

None of her reported contacts have been indentified as either probable or confirmed for H1N1 influenza at this time.

The
Massachusetts Department of Public Health is taking the lead in a full
and continuing investigation of the case but, at this time, we are not
aware of any institutional exposures – at schools, workplaces or other
locations – that would warrant any concern or follow-up.

It is
standard operating procedure for local and state public health
officials to collaborate and share information in the case of
communicable disease.

Somerville residents should rest assured
that the City's public health staff, including our public health and
school nurses – and our partners in the Cambridge Health Alliance
service network – will remain vigilant in identifying and investigating
all cases of flu or flu-like symptoms.

The public should also be
of aware that the City of Somerville has been, and will be, involved in
continued preparedness efforts and contingency planning should a wider
outbreak occur.

Residents should also be confident that we will
share all official information as soon as we have it – and that the
latest information about influenza is always available on our website, www.somervillema.gov, where you will also find links to updated information from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the CDC.

While past contests have been won
by groups who focused on maximizing the energy-efficiency of their
designs, Tufts and the BAC are taking a broader approach, explained
Bill Moomaw, professor of international environmental policy at Tufts
and one of the project's leaders.

"What we need to do is bring
solar panels to everybody. We don't want to just build a solar house.
We want to build an affordable house," he said at the groundbreaking
ceremony.

By integrating the environmental and economic sides of
sustainability, the project will emphasize that "everything is
connected," said Jeff Stein, Dean of the BAC. "Today, there is only one
ecology, one big system of which we are all a part," he explained.
Architects and builders, he implied, must consider the sustainability,
not just the affordability, of their buildings.

The house will
be small-only 800 square feet, as stipulated by the contest rules-but
will contain many innovative and affordable features, said Kevin Horne
in a presentation following the groundbreaking. Horne, a BAC graduate
student, is one of the project's student directors.

He explained
that the roof of the house will be covered not only with solar panels
but also with "solar collectors," which use the sun's energy to produce
hot water. Rainwater will be collected and used to flush the toilets,
and the interior layout of the house will be easily reconfigurable. The
entrance will even have an airlock to reduce the energy loss associated
with entering and exiting the structure.

"Our vision," Horne
explained, "is to empower people to live sustainably. We don't want to
just build a house, we want to help people to build and live
sustainably."

Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn also attended the
ceremony, and emphasized Medford's longstanding commitment to
environmental education. In what appeared to be a surprise move, he
offered to provide space in Medford to permanently display the
completed Curio House. He expressed hope that by extending the
project's life beyond the end of the competition, the house might
spread public awareness of sustainability issues.

The project
will culminate in October with the exhibition of all 20 completed
structures in a "solar village" on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
The last competition, in 2007, drew over 1 million visitors to its
"solar village," and competition organizers are hoping for an even
higher turnout this year.

Fully funding the Curio house will
cost about $750,000, according to a press release. The project has
received a $100,000 grant from the Department of Energy, Horne said,
and organizers hope to raise the remaining amount through donations
from an array of local businesses and individuals.

More information about the project can be found on its website,

www.livecurio.us.

On
the one hand, I am grateful that the legislature has decided we can't
simply cut our way out of the fiscal crisis. If it ultimately becomes
law, Monday night's veto-proof vote in the House to boost the state
sales tax would mean less severe cuts in critical services at the state
and local level. New revenue must be part of a balanced solution to our
problems and – whatever their source – any and all new revenues will
help.

On the other hand, Governor Patrick was right when he
called the Legislature on its failure to focus on reform first. Reform
is what gives the public confidence that it's no longer business as
usual on Beacon Hill. Without reform, any revenue enhancements or
service cuts become much harder sells.

When you put aside all
the overheated talk-show rhetoric, it's pretty clear that the best
approach to ending this fiscal crisis is to come up with a balanced,
well-designed mix of structural reforms (including pension and benefit
reforms, agency consolidation, and greater managerial flexibility for
cities and towns), some targeted adjustments in revenue and some
difficult but inevitable budget-cutting. That's exactly what Governor
Patrick has proposed.

But what the Governor also understands is
that the various "reform" bills floating around Beacon Hill – on
transportation, ethics, and pensions – simply don't go far enough. He
also understands that his revenue proposals – such as his calls for an
increase in the gas tax, for closing the telecommunications tax
loophole, for local options meals and hotel taxes, and for ending the
sales tax exemptions for candy, soda, and alcohol – are more targeted
than a general hike in the sales tax. The revenues they would generate
would go straight to areas of greatest need; they would encourage
better public buying patterns while promoting healthier and more
energy-efficient lifestyles.

Don't get me wrong: Any new
revenues that allow the state to reduce its deep and painful cuts in
local aid will be very welcome, and we will accept them with thanks.
Under the circumstances, I think Representatives Provost and Sciortino
were right to support the sales tax increase and I appreciate their
continuing efforts on behalf of our community. I am also grateful to
Speaker DeLeo for his willingness to consider a wide range of revenue
options – and for his leadership in a difficult situation.

But
I also think this fiscal crisis should be seen as an opportunity to fix
long-standing structural problems in the way we collect and spend
public revenue – as well as an opportunity to push for much-needed
reforms in the ways that the legislature micromanages cities and towns,
and the way public retirement and benefit systems have fallen into
patterns of inefficiency and even abuse.

That is why I hope that
the Governor sticks to his guns, and that we will see reform come back
to the forefront in our budget discussion. That is why I look forward
to working with our delegation to pass legislation that gives cities
and towns the choice of imposing modest local-option hotel and meals
taxes in order to reduce our dependence on a regressive property tax
system. That is why I hope cities and towns will also receive greater
freedom to develop health-care plans that help manage costs while
maintaining quality of care. All of these changes are part of the
governor's reform agenda, and all of them will contribute to long-term,
structural change.

We need to understand, however, that these
changes – as welcome as they are – will still leave us with hard
choices in next year's budget. Even if we get the reform we need, and
even if we get some restoration of local revenue either through the
governor's package or the sales tax hike – we will still have to find
ways to save money in FY2010.

So please don't think that the
House vote to increase the sales tax means there will be less pressure
on cities and towns to achieve structural reforms of their own. We will
need to scrutinize every program, every service, every revenue source
in order to come up with a plan to manage our way through this fiscal
crisis.

And while we're on the subject of scrutinizing every
cost and making hard choices: I announced on April 22nd that Janice
Delory, who has been working as an Aide to the Mayor, is taking over as
Chief of Staff from Mike Lambert, who has taken on a new role as the
City's Director of Transportation & Infrastructure. (Mike is
filling an existing and critical slot in the Office of Strategic
Planning and Development.) In view of the current fiscal situation, I
will not be back-filling Janice's prior position. Reducing the size of
the Mayor's Office in this way will mean more work for fewer people,
but cost control has to start at the top. This is by no means the first
or the last step we will be taking to manage costs across the face of
city government. As I've said before – and will continue to say no
matter what happens on Beacon Hill – all options, layoffs included,
remain on the table.