06/02/2026
The teachers, police and fire department and other frontline staff should not be in this position. These staff are amazing and I am grateful for the work they do.
Had our City Councilors and other elected officials advocated for appropriate levels of state aide then the problem would be more manageable. If when the insurance trust started having a problem more than a year ago and they pushed back and asked why instead of just sending more money this problem would not be as big. Had questions been asked about increases in budget lines and limits set 4 or five years ago then the division in our community would not be so painful.
All the former members of the school committee, city council, our former and current Mayor hold responsibility for not doing their job effectively and maybe also be negligent in the use of tax payer funds. What should we do with that.
Maybe a smaller ask would have been less of a burden. It would have given the city time to implement some cost reduction measures and other ideas to increase revenues. Salem may have some good ideas for increasing revenues elsewhere we have not heard the details.
It would be wonderful if the city was transparent about this problem and was really willing to collaborate to solve problems creatively.
