When LSC member JARED NICHOLSON put on the agenda for last Thursday's LSC meeting a request for an accounting of the new Chapter 70 money (Remember the $3.7 million I've been telling you about?) I was a little exited. Maybe somebody besides my mother reads my blog after all.
Well when it became time for the agenda item come up the room suddenly got dark and a smoky fog permeated throughout the room. It was like something out of the WWE. The sockless warrior LYNN CFO PETER CARON strolled to the table facing the LSC and school administrators and confidently sat down. The new money would go to pay health insurance premiums they had previously underestimated.
A positive spin was applied to the city's siezure of the money intended for the schools. Basically they were told if we had known we were wrong you would have never gotten as much money as you did so in effect we are just taking back money we mistakenly loaned you. Maybe we were supposed to thank the city for letting LPS hold it.
Not surprisingly I got a couple of problems with all that. First there is this whole mess with being able to count the HEALTH INSURANCE premiums of retired school employees thing. I mean that's how we got into the arrears problem. I know, I know, we are now allowed to count it after it is phased in. I think we are scheduled to be allowed only 50% of it this year. Since it was like pulling teeth to even get the DESE to admit they cut a deal to let LYNN of the hook for their total $17 million bill (making the pay about half spread out over 4 years), good luck trying to get actual numbers.
Then what PETE WITH THE BARE FEET seemed to fail to take into consideration is that because they are getting more CHAPTER 70 money the DESE is going to expect the city to spend more because their NET SCHOOL SPENDING amount will be higher. At least that's how I read a letter I got from JAY SULLIVAN from the DESE:
.
The additional funds the city received also increased the Net School Spending
requirement
This was not FREE money to PAY your OLD bills.
No this NEW money meant NEW bills for a HIGHER obligation.
Apparently though the smokescreen was enough to INTIMIDATE everyone there so no raised any questions.
"PLEASE SIR, CAN I HAVE ANOTHER!"
Oh yeah, one more thing. With all those lawyers up there, I am sure there wasn't an actual violation of any OPEN MEETING laws but it does seem a little shady that MR. CARON'S presentation wasn't publicly advertised.
I'm sure he just happened to stop by on his way to the laundrymat or WALMART in search of socks.
Have you seen the most recent NSS compliance reports posted by the DESE? For FY15, Lynn's requirement was $189.4 million, but Lynn only spent $180.6 (95.4% just barely missing yet another penalty for not fully funding the schools). As a result, Lynn had a carryover amount of $8,795,990 for FY16 bringing their FY17 requirement to a whopping $200.7 million! Lynn is budgeted to only spend $193.9 million which will AGAIN result in a carryover for FY18 of $6,829,957. It appears the under-funding of the schools and NSS carryovers are never ending for the city of Lynn. It doesn't appear as though the city of Lynn has not learned anything from the financial crisis and nightmare it created and has been going through for the past few years. The state was very generous in allowing the city to only have to pay a fraction of their total debt. From these most recent figures, it appears the city's debt will continue to skyrocket. I would be shocked if the state will be willing to work with the city again in the future, and from the looks of things, the city will be begging for another reprieve.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/chapter70/compliance.html
I think part of the "agreement" was that the city fully fund the schools. Failure to do so would void the agrrement potentially put the city back on the hook for the whole thing. But I have NOT seen the actual agreement because I think it must be a SECRET!
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