At a ceremony yesterday in City Council chambers, Councilor Kateri Walsh was sworn in as the body’s new president, becoming the first woman to hold that office since Mary Hurley in 1988. Replacing outgoing council president Jose Tosado, she automatically becomes a member of the five-member Finance Control Board, which also by design has three state appointees and the city’s mayor, as well as (currently) five staff. Today’s article in the Republican by Azell Murphy Cavaan captures some of Walsh’s intentions:
Walsh said …she will ask the Legislature to forgive or extend the repayment terms of a $52 million no-interest loan approved by legislators for the city when the Control Board was created.
Walsh also said she will advocate that a "public speak-out" be added to Control Board meeting agendas. She promised to push for the City Council to regain control in deciding "important local issues."
It would be intriguing indeed if public comment were invited at each control board meeting, likely adding some variety and local flavor, and maybe engaging residents a little more. Whether anything new or implementable would emerge is an open question, but perhaps the civic engagement process could be given priority, as the Governor-elect has indicated.
Such public comment may also add to the exasperation of the detail-oriented, data-and-punctilio-crunching board members—they are, after all, the finance control board—and more agenda items would lengthen meetings (some board members travel across the state in order to attend). What changes are on the horizon; how long will the board remain intact, and will its membership change further? Paging Deval Patrick.
If you have expedient ideas for the control board, consider emailing them via an online suggestion box.
Speaking of the control board, the fiscal year 2007 tax rate was set successfully without any fanfare, according to the city’s Web site—which pushed the news to the home page. I think this news should have warranted at least a press release, if not an actual press conference, given the fuss about whether this could be done, as expressed in a trash-fee-related press conference back in November.
In the usual manner of fun math, residential tax rates went down (from 17 to 16.04 percent), but that most likely means that the dollar amount increases. (Disclaimer: journalists doing math is often inadvisable.) In general, the state’s property taxes are on the rise. Springfield’s city Web site has a real estate taxes FAQ to help explain the cut-and-dry of how it works. (There is also a motor vehicle excise tax FAQ, as well as a personal property taxes FAQ.) Don’t tell me you don’t find this terribly compelling news?
