Mayor Sam Sutter has sent a request to the Fall River City Council to transfer $1.6 million of free cash to the School Department to meet net school spending requirements for Fiscal Year 2016. The Department of Revenue has certified a total of $3.9 million in free cash to Fall River for FY16.
“When I was campaigning for mayor last fall, I committed to meeting 100% of net school spending for FY15. I began that process in early February by transferring $3.4 million which was owed to the School Department. Then, for FY16, my financial team and I crafted a creative and successful strategy for scheduling our net school spending payments, enabling us to close a $6.5 million shortfall for FY16 without a single layoff in Fire, Police, Community Maintenance, or City Hall. We provided our schools with the resources they need without seeking a waiver of the net school spending requirement, and we did it without diminishing city services in any other department.”
The City’s free cash was certified by the Department of Revenue on Thursday, September 24th, and the transfer order was sent down to the Council that same day.
“We have taken a responsible approach to budgeting, spending only the money we have instead of creating debts to be paid later. This way, we can avoid depending on quick fixes and build up a solid, sustainable fiscal foundation. The moment the funds reached the City’s coffers, we sent the order to the Council to make the transfer. I made a promise to our City that our schools would be properly funded no matter how difficult our fiscal situation was this year, and I am proud to have delivered on that promise,” Sutter says.
The mayor has also stated that any remaining outstanding costs including health care expenses owed to the schools from FY15, the total of which is still undetermined, will be transferred after the total cost is certified later this year. Sutter said he will wait until the exact amount owed is calculated instead of relying on a projection, which created difficulties last fiscal year when health care costs were overestimated.
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