Worcester Needs More Citizen Input on Budget Process Says Report

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Nicholas Handy, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

A new report analyzing the Fiscal Year 2015 budget – which began on July 1st – for Worcester says that more citizens need to be involved in the process so that the city can better account for the wants and needs of its residents.

According to the Worcester Regional Research Bureau – who wrote the report – more citizens need to be involved in the public meeting portions of the budget process so that the city officials can be aware of any and all local concerns.

“The public plays an important role in setting the priorities of a given city,” said Tim McGourthy, Executive Director of the Worcester Research Bureau. “This report is designed to educate the citizens of Worcester about the budget process, where the money is being spent, and how they can get involved in the budget process in the future.”

The report breaks down the budget by raising a variety of questions about the budget and then using data from the Fiscal Year 2015 budget to answer them.

Understanding the Process

The Worcester budget is something that affects every member of Worcester but according to McGourthy, not a lot of people understand the process and what goes into creating a city budget every year.

The report breaks down the budget from who is in charge of the budget to the approval process to how it is funded to the changes in the past couple of years.

“Every year the Research Bureau looks that the budget and what the city is funding,” said McGourthy. “This year we decided to do something a little different and help people understand the process of the budget. We wanted to educate the city on the process and what this year’s budget looks like, now that it has been implemented.”

More Stakeholder Involvement

The Research Bureau wants citizens to understand what goes into creating a city budget, but has more ambitious goals that simply educating.

McGourthy hopes that this report can both educate and inspire. If citizens are more aware of the budget process then he hopes that they will become more involved. That way, the budget adequately reflects the wants and needs of Worcester better.

“The role of the Research Bureau has always been to inform the populous and to engage the community, which this report will hopefully do,” said McGourthy. “We want people to be educated about the budget process but we also want them to be more involved and to go to the public hearing to express any concerns; we need more stakeholder and community involvement.”

Related Slideshow: Worcester School Committee Reacts to School Budget

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Dianna L. Biancheria

“There is a reasonable assumption that last night didn’t have too many fireworks; I am anticipating more moving forward. Nothing is finalized yet; this budget process is one big journey."

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John F. Monfredo

"This really is a discouraging budget; there isn't much wiggle room. It is extremely frustrating to me because I am not a politician, I am an educator; I know what works."

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Tracy O'Connell Novick

“Considering the shortage of money that we have to deal with for this budget, I think that things went pretty well. The problem is that we can only allot the funds that we have and right now we don’t have a lot.”

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Brian A. O'Connell

“I think that the budget process went smoothly [at the last meeting], but the early meeting always presents the less challenging accounts; the ones that don’t have a lot of flexibility.”

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Hilda Ramirez

“This is a barebones budget so there isn’t much that can be moved around. Education isn’t the only field dealing with this issue; a lot of budgets are having to do more with less money.”