Cohen's budget features no cuts -- for now

By James O’Brien, Globe Correspondent

Mayor David Cohen presented the last city budget of his career Tuesday night, offering a $287 million package with no cuts to programs and services, no layoffs, and school funding set at levels proposed by the school superintendent. But that could change if state lawmakers cut funding for cities and towns.

Tuesday night’s address to the Board of Aldermen marked the final budget presentation of the retiring mayor's 11-year career, but it also marked what Cohen said were "the most difficult circumstances under which we have had to deliberate upon a budget."

New local aid cuts are set for debate in the Massachusetts House Ways and Means committee next week and could mean $725,000 slashed from Newton’s anticipated local aid, in addition to up to $1 million in cuts from the school department’s special education funding.

Additional state-aid changes, Cohen said, could also come when the state Senate takes up local aid in May.

And while the mayor said that "good financial planning and the fiscal restraint exercised in last year’s budget," left Newton prepared for some state cuts, significant reductions could put the city back at the budget-drafting table.

Based on the outcome in the Legislature, Cohen said he would update Aldermen and school officials on "any further reductions we will be forced to make."

Cohen's budget for fiscal 2010, if it remains unchanged, relies upon a zero-percent cost of living adjustment for all city employees.

Cohen hailed a new automated trash and recycling collection system set to start as soon as October, tying it to savings in its first year of about $750,000.

Other environmental moves include switching from oil to natural gas in some municipal and school buildings. The mayor said natural gas saved the school department more than $1 million last year. He hoped to reduce the city’s energy budget by a further $650,000 through new energy control systems, and by locking in current gasoline prices at $1.97 per gallon.

Furthermore, Cohen also said Newton would cut costs by switching to more efficient, less labor-intensive electronic water-meter reading, and wirelessly linking Inspectional Services Department laptops in the field to home-office databases, boosting productivity.

The construction of a new Newton North High School remains "on time and under budget," Cohen said. "And I expect that I will not ask to use any of the $5 million set aside as the Aldermen’s contingency."

The mayor also seeks to initiate improvements to city and school buildings, and add new positions to city staff, adopting four recommendations from a Citizen Advisory Group report earlier this month.

Cohen said Newton should take advantage of the city’s triple-A bond rating by adjusting its debt service to create more funds for needed repairs to buildings. He would add a budget analyst to the executive office, a performance management system in some city departments, and a crime analyst to the police department.

It has already been a budget season of sudden reversals for the mayor, but not all of them ending in uncertainty.

Last week, Cohen told Newton school officials that, barring municipal relief money, the city budget would be short $1 million of the $166.8 million the school department set for fiscal 2010.

Just two days later, however, Cohen presented a plan that cobbled together nearly all of that shortfall from a spectrum of stabilization and reserve accounts, storm-water funds, taxes from new development projects, and by lowering city health insurance rates to produce savings.

As for whether the ongoing local-aid uncertainty in the Legislature created a frustrating loose end in his final city budget, Cohen said time would tell.

"Talk to me in a couple of months, my friend," Cohen said, following his presentation. "It is my hope and belief that at the end of the day, [the Legislature] will come up with a final package that will enable us to go forward with the budget I presented."

The aldermen are expected to vote on the city budget by June 5.