The state of the state (aid)

Ralph Romano started off "Politically Speaking" last night taking the Sentinel to task for writing continuously that the city is working with an unbalanced budget. Romano's argument is that the budget was balanced based on assumptions, but state aid come in under those assumptions.

Whether you consider Romano's thoughts to be semantics or budgetary truth, as we've thought about this overnight it doesn't make us feel much better about the city's financial situation, or the way this budget was put together.

The city budget takes effect on July 1. By February or March, the city has a decent idea of where its state aid is going to be. Certainly by May or early June, the picture is pretty clear, either through the formal state budget process or more informal communication with legislative representatives.

Our question right now (and perhaps we'll dig through the archives at some point this weekend to see if we can find our own answer), is what was Fitchburg legitimately expecting for aid when the budget was passed? Was it clear state aid was short? Was there some better-than-50-50 chance that aid would be increased?

After "Politically Speaking" last night, we're big-time concerned about the state aid situation. Fitchburg's representatives aren't taking an aggressive stand on the city's behalf, and we're not confident the city's share is suddenly going to increase by millions in one year. We'll be interested to see where things stand when the House budget comes out later this year, but we wonder if Fitchburg will be facing a bigger budget crisis for next year's budget, a scary thought considering the current situation.