By Seth Daniel
During Monday night’s meeting, the Chelsea City Council unanimously approved the fiscal year 2018 City Budget in a 10-0 vote, setting the total at $163.39 million.
Alongside the main budget, the Council also gave approval to a Water Enterprise Fund totaling $7.7 million and a Sewer Enterprise Fund of $11.74 million, with both funded through ratepayer fees and the tax levy.
The budget shows a slight imbalance, requiring $674,154 in Free Cash to achieve equilibrium—a smaller amount than in previous years, despite City Manager Tom Ambrosino’s presentation of an ambitious spending plan.
“This budget re-affirms our commitment to provide good services to the resident of Chelsea,” he said.
Key priorities in the budget encompass the downtown initiative, a downtown coordinator position, social service contracts, two additional firefighters, youth programming, summer employment opportunities for young people, and new staff and administrative support positions at City Hall.
The largest portion of expenditures goes toward the Chelsea Public Schools. The schools face challenges due to a statewide change in the state funding formula that has negatively affected Chelsea and other urban districts serving low-income students not enrolled in welfare programs. Under the previous system, students could self-report their low-income status. The new system, however, requires students to be officially enrolled in a welfare program to qualify as low income and access additional funding.
To address this funding gap, the City allocated $4 million this year, compared to $2 million the previous year.
Ambrosino noted in an earlier budget hearing that this level of support cannot be sustained indefinitely.
“I want the school administration to hear this clearly, this cannot be sustained,” he said. “We cannot continue to make these expenditures to fill these funding gaps out of the City Budget.”
Unless the state resolves the funding issue, this is expected to become a contentious issue when budget discussions resume next year.
The budget takes effect on July 1.