By THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said a long-running school spending disagreement with state officials is almost resolved, allowing her to focus on other city financial priorities.
“It’s definitely near its conclusion,” she said.
Subject to final review by city officials and an approval letter from state education officials, net school spending will become a problem Kennedy is confident the city will have a handle on.
She said a prospective plan calls for the city to erase its $8.9 million net spending obligation over four years, paying each amount out of the city’s spending surplus.
“Everything else I’d like to do in terms of spending money is contingent on getting this done,” Kennedy said on Tuesday.
City Chief Financial Officer Peter Caron said paying down the obligation will come over and above meeting the city’s annual school “full funding” requirements.
“We don’t want to add to the $8.9 million requirement by underfunding the schools,” Caron said.
Lynn’s ability to meet state net spending requirements dates back three years and came to a head when state officials warned in February 2014 that local net spending had dropped $8.5 million below state minimum local school spending requirements.
Faced with that deficit, Kennedy and city budget officials turned to state legislators for help.
State Rep. Robert Fennell and state Sen. Thomas M. McGee worked initially on a plan
to ease Lynn’s school spending obligation by allowing the city to begin counting retired teacher health insurance costs as part of the complicated state spending formula.
The plan expanded into legislation to allow the city to gradually begin counting retired teacher health insurance costs over four years, beginning in 2015.
Net spending reared its head again at the start of the budget planning process last March as city and state educators and budget makers traded views on an $18.6 million “net school spending” shortfall identified on the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website.
With state officials arguing Lynn has a spending obligation to meet, Kennedy and city officials pointed to education costs burdening the city. They enlisted Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito’s help in brokering a compromise.
“We were able to explain the disparate impact net spending has on cities like Lynn,” Kennedy said.
She said Lynn and other cities face student enrollment expansion challenges and special education and non English-speaker education demands not faced by other communities.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].
