Video Update for April 13
Good evening, this is your Mayor Paul Brodeur.
Our total number of COVID-19 positive since the onset of the pandemic stands at 87, and I want to talk a bit more about these statistics. Each municipality in Massachusetts receives reports of new cases through the Department of Public Health’s electronic reporting system called MAVEN. On occasion, this data might not accurately reflect the location of a case. As an example, if somebody has a mailing address in Melrose but is living with a boyfriend or girlfriend in Medford and becomes infected, that case will likely be reported as a Melrose case despite the fact that the infected person is rarely in our city. I point this out to people merely to remind them that the value of knowing these statistics is so that people can understand the trend in the spread of the virus over time. So, as of now in Melrose, the trend is that we are receiving a handful of new cases each day, meaning that we have not yet hit the expected surge in cases.
Also, you may have noticed that I have stopped reporting on fatalities. MAVEN does not provide an official count of death by municipality. While we can surmise the cause of death in certain cases, because we do not receive official numbers from DPH, I feel it could be misleading to continue to report the number of Melrose fatalities.
Second, many of you have asked about our upcoming budget for fiscal year 2021. I regret to report that we are in a period of great uncertainty. As many of you know, most of our revenue comes from property taxes. However, for the budget we are currently in, the fy2020 budget, we are relying on $15.2 million in state aid and $6.6 million in local revenue unrelated to the property tax. On the state level, this includes unrestricted local aid, and so-called chapter 70 school aid. State revenues are expected to drop precipitously – one estimate suggests a $2-3 billion reduction. Our local receipts such as auto excise tax and meals tax are also expected to drop sharply. While we are hopeful federal COVID-19 related financial assistance will cushion the blow, it is difficult to predict what revenues will be available to fund our budget. Thus, we will be very cautious in our planning.
For those of you who may be interested, you can watch tomorrow’s the state legislative hearing on state revenue through the legislature’s website: www.malegislature.gov
Finally, I want to thank the Melrose YMCA, Beansprout, Music 101, and the Police, Fire and DPW for making yesterday’s Spring Celebration such a success. Events like that make me believe more than ever that together we will get through this.
Thank you, and good night.