Doesn’t Brookline have reserve funds for hard times like these?
Brookline has a number of reserve funds. The School Department budget includes reserves for unexpected enrollment growth is both regular and special education and another reserve for other unanticipated events. The Town budget includes a reserve fund that can be used for unanticipated expenses such as unusually large snow removal costs due to a bad winter or police overtime to deal with a tragedy such as the murders at two of our family planning clinics several years ago. The Town maintains other reserves to address litigation, tax abatements, etc. We must maintain these reserves to deal with unexpected emergencies and to protect the town’s good bond rating that allows us to borrow funds for large projects. The Override Study Committee agreed that these are NOT excess funds, and that they should remain separate from the operating budget if Brookline is to remain fiscally stable.
