Can city afford under-ride?

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD Attorney Paul Peter Nicolai said he has received over 100 completed petitions that would place a binding question on the November ballot designed to lower the city's tax rate. If passed the city's revenues would be decreased by over $15 million.

And, Nicolai said because of waste and mismanagement, the city can afford the cut.

"Easily. The city could afford multiples of it," he told Reminder Publications.

Currently the city is running a $20 million deficit and under the management of a state-imposed Finance Control Board, Mayor Charles Ryan disagreed with Nicolai's logic.

"If he should win, I don't know where the city goes from there," Ryan said. "We're insolvent and living on borrowed money, all of which has to be paid back."

Nicolai announced his "under-ride" in late April and has been gathering support and signatures. He said that response so far to the campaign has been "99.5 percent positive."

Since beginning the effort, he said that elected officials have been talking about it to the press, but have not spoken to him directly. He feels this is unfortunate as he hopes his actions will open a discussion about how the city is managed and how tax dollars are spent.

In 1991, Springfield residents approved a Proposition 2 1/2 override as a solution for financial difficulties. In Nicolai's press release, he wrote, "In 1991, we were promised that if we passed the override, we would get safe streets, good schools and a government that would see to it that there would be no more financial crises. Did they keep any of those promises? No."

Nicolai said that he "didn't wake up one morning' with the idea, but rather it has been growing over the past three to four years. He said that he has met with both former Mayor Michael Albano and with Ryan, as well as sending "hundreds of pages of letters" to elected officials expressing his concerns.

Ryan did confirm that he has received letters from Nicolai.

The core of Nicolai's argument is that Springfield residents are paying too much for the level of services provided by city government. He said that, if he were an elected official, he would sign the petition in order to debate the quality of Springfield's city services.

"I can't solve the city's problems, but I can solve the problem of the third poorest people paying the second highest tax rate in the state," Nicolai said.

Nicolai said that the Commonwealth measures municipal spending on a per capita basis and that Springfield is 25 percent over the state average. If the city were to spend at the state average, its budget would be $103 million less, he contended.

He said that Worcester spent 106 percent of the state average last year and if Springfield had had the same budget, the city would have spent $79 million less.

A parent of five children, two of whom are currently in the city's public schools, Nicolai said that in 1987, before the Commonwealth's education reform legislation, the School Department received $60 million from municipal and state sources. At that time, there were problems with low test scores, class size and absenteeism.

By 2004, the budget had increased to $191 million and Nicolai said, "The problems haven't changed."

Nicolai said that the cost of living is 10 to 15 percent below that of the Boston metro area and yet the city is spending 25 percent over the state average. Combine those two statements and Nicolai said, "There is something major wrong here."

Looking at the city's major departments, Nicolai said, "The consistent issue is responsibility. No one wants to be responsible. No one wants to hold anybody accountable."

Nicolai made these remarks before the release of the report that evaluated the management of the Police Department.

Ryan noted that the police study is the first of four such outside evaluations designed to measure the efficiency of major city departments. The Fire Department will be next.

Ryan said these studies will "serve as a guide point for change."

Nicolai charged that Ryan was elected to clean up the city government, but "I'll tell you the truth, Charlie hasn't cleaned the kitchen sink."

In response, Ryan said this administration has attacked the issue of mismanagement.

"Waste in city government? That's what we have been dealing with," Ryan said.

Although Nicolai is critical of members of the Albano administration who were involved in tax collecting and finance and still have city jobs, Ryan noted that his administration collected $8 to 10 million more in taxes during the last fiscal year. That includes the $2.5 million owed by establishments with liquor licenses, some of which had owed taxes for years.

"We stopped what is a very bad practice," Ryan said.

He added that tax collection has been "one of the prime areas" of his administration and there has been a "sharply increased performance" in the collection office.

"We need more specifics," Ryan said. "If he says we can work without $15 million while insolvent, then he needs to be more forthcoming."

Ryan said that much progress has been made in changing the way city government operates and that he "hasn't finished the trip."

Nicolai believes that the evaluation of city departments by MassMutual last July shows where there are potential efficiencies and wondered how many of the recommendations in the report have been implemented.

Ryan said that the subject of the under-ride "will be part of my campaign."

Nicolai predicted the override will double or triple the voter turnout in November and that it will pass.