Statement on the FY'25 Capital Budget

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

View this email in your browser Statement on the FY'25 Capital Budget Early this morning, after over ten hours of debate on amendments to the Mayor's operating budget, the City Council quickly and unceremoniously voted to approve the $4.7 billion capital budget, which dictates spending on large infrastructure projects. I voted against this budget. My “No” vote is a result of two factors: the persistent underinvestment in Allston-Brighton and the extremely troubling absence of transparency and accountability in our budgeting process. It’s clear to me that there are serious flaws undergirding the entire capital process in the City of Boston. These flaws are much bigger than any one Mayor or administration; they’ve been present for decades. However, by failing to address these issues we are compounding the problem and doing a grave disservice to our City’s future. A Chronic Underinvestment in the Allston-Brighton Community Year after year, Allston-Brighton finds itself dead last in capital investment, despite being the second largest neighborhood in the City. This year is no different. In this budget, the total amount of proposed capital spending slated for our district (District 9) is $47 million, a staggering $192 million less than the average across each of the other eight districts. Seven of those eight other districts each receive nearly four times as much funding as Allston-Brighton does (with the eighth still receiving nearly twice our level of funding). Residents of Allston-Brighton have lived with this reality for generations. In a neighborhood with thousands of young families, there is one BCYF center in the entirety of Allston-Brighton. That one center is being demolished, with no plan for a new facility included in this budget. Many of our parks were identified as in desperate need of improvement decades ago, and yet have sat unfunded and untouched for years.    Transformative projects promised to our neighborhood have remained inactive on the capital budget for decades, marked as “to be scheduled”. Improvements to Rogers Park have been on the capital budget since 2008, yet none of these scheduled improvements have ever materialized. A study to build a new fire station in Allston-Brighton sat stagnant on the capital budget for years before quietly being removed without explanation. Desperately-needed safety improvements to Commonwealth Ave have been on there for over a decade, with no tangible plan or timeline in sight.   It’s natural that capital projects and priorities differ year-to-year, but the one constant over the past few decades has been a complete lack of investment in Allston-Brighton. As the district Councilor for this neighborhood, I cannot vote for yet another budget that so severely underfunds our community and abandons our residents.  A Need for Reform The pervasive underinvestment in Allston-Brighton speaks to a much larger problem: Boston lacks nearly all of the common-sense capital planning practices other cities adhere to.    Unlike other cities, Boston has no systems in place to ensure that previously authorized projects progress on schedule, or even see completion at all. Debt authorized as part of the capital budget is not required to be spent on the project it was initially authorized for. As such, there’s nothing preventing funds authorized this year for one project from being diverted toward a completely different project next year.    Major decisions regarding this multi-billion dollar budget are made with a startling lack of transparency or accountability. Some projects advance rapidly through the process, while others sit inactive for decades as “to be scheduled”. Other cities have publicly accessible dashboards, where the status of capital projects is updated regularly with clearly defined dates and milestones. Nothing like that exists in Boston, leaving residents in the dark as to when the projects they were promised years ago will become reality.   We may be proud of our AAA bond rating, but perhaps our creditors should instead ask “is the City of Boston making sound decisions for capital improvements?” It is unconscionable that there are no internal controls to ensure that the billions we’re incurring in debt are being spent in a timely and efficient manner.    Allston-Brighton deserves better. Boston deserves better. It doesn’t have to be this way. I appreciate the fact that these are problems the current administration has inherited. However, by failing to take decisive action to improve our capital budgeting practices we are recreating the mistakes of past administrations Copyright © 2024 Committee to Elect Liz Breadon, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Committee to Elect Liz Breadon 33 Champney St Brighton, MA 02135-1628 Add us to your address book