Peabody Facing 'Painful Decisions' In Budget: Mayor

PEABODY, MA — Peabody officials are trying to assess the impact the new coronavirus crisis will have on the city's budget.

"We are prepared for the very worst in terms of our city budget planning. As always, our priority is to maintain the core municipal services that taxpayers expect," Mayor Ted Bettencourtsaid. "With revenue projections as bleak as we’ve ever seen however, we’ll need to make a lot of very painful decisions."

During last year's budget process, Peabody saw jumps in several areas, including health insurance premiums, payments to the city retirement program and debt payments.

This year, Peabody officials are waiting for the state budget to be finalized before moving forward with revisions to local budgets. It's a scenario playing out in communities across the state.

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The state, which supplements local and school budgets, has lost wage tax revenue from the 689,000 jobs that have vanished since the start of the pandemic, as well as lost sales tax revenue from closed, non-essential businesses. That forced the state legislature was to scrap a budget process that began in December, leaving local governments in limbo. State lawmakers are hoping federal money could make that process easier.

Massachusetts officials are now lobbying for more federal money for states.

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Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).