The prevailing narrative in discussions of Northampton’s budget is that there is $2 million of free cash that the city could spend to resolve the current school budget crisis. This is untrue. “Free cash” is non-guaranteed funds that remain at the end of the fiscal year thanks to careful estimates of revenue and spending. Using them for ongoing budget needs like education is irresponsible. To quote the Massachusetts Division of Local Services, “As a nonrecurring revenue source, free cash should be restricted to paying one-time expenditures, funding capital projects, or replenishing other reserves.”

Our budget gap cannot be fixed with the one-time use of nonrecurring funds — either from free cash or stabilization funds. This would just mask the growing deficit. We’d be in the same place in a year, but in a more vulnerable fiscal position because of insufficient stabilization funds. To keep maintaining school funding, we’d need to take from these funds until we depleted them altogether. At that point, the cuts to the education budget will be far worse. It’s the job of the mayor and the City Council to plan not just for next year, but to responsibly plan for the future; to think about next year’s students, but also about those who aren’t even in school yet. Like the city’s leadership, I care deeply about the future of Northampton’s students. And like them, I understand that the future lasts more than one year.

Megan Zinn

Northampton