Take a look at page 285 of the this year’s budget book. In particular the the line under Funding Sources titled General Fund Revenue:
- FY2015 the actual number taken from the General Fund was $904,118
- FY 2016 the budgeted number from the General Fund is $490,164
- FY 2017 the budgeted number from the General Fund is $470,494
At the next City Council meeting I hope some councilor will ask what the actual number looks like for FY2016. For the sake of this column, lets assume that the budgeted numbers for FY2016 and FY2017 come in at the budgeted numbers, That means almost $2,000,000 over this 3 year period (FY2015-Fy2016-FY2017) will be taken from the General Fund to pay for the operations of the DCU.
This begs the question does the City of Worcester belong in the :
- Golf Course business
- Airport business (out)
- Nursing Home business (out)
- Hospital business (out)
- Civic and Convention Center business
- Train station business
- Parking garage business
- Tennis court business (was proposed for Newton Square)
- Low income housing business
As our excess tax levy capacity disappears next year (FY2017) or the year after that (FY2018), these are the types of questions our leaders need to address. In this case, just as we called Massport to get us out of the airport business, we need to start having conversation with Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. Who knows maybe they would take a look at the Aud?
