NEW BEDFORD Mayor Jon Mitchell submitted the fiscal year 2022 budget proposal of approximately $431 million to the City Council on Wednesday. The proposed budget includes adding back some positions that were eliminated last year amid the pandemic.
Last year’s proposed fiscal year 2021 budget was approximately $411 million, with the General Fund accounting for $365 million. The fiscal year 2022 proposal includes an increase in the General Fund to $383 million.
Mitchell told the councilors over Zoom that the budget reflects a “relentless effort” to control costs. He said fixed and mandated costs for charter schools, insurance programs and pension have been steadily increasing over the last several years.
New Bedford residents 65 and over who receive their COVID-19 vaccination at specified clinic sites in the city will receive a $20 Dunkin’ gift card with their first dose beginning on Wednesday, May 19, Mayor Jon Mitchell announced on Friday.
According to the release, while most of New Bedford’s seniors are vaccinated, the average vaccination rate for those 65 and up is lower than the state average.
“Dunkin’ gift cards will now be offered to any New Bedford resident age 65 and over who receive their vaccines at the walk-up FEMA-run clinic at the Waterfront Vaccination Center on Hervey Tichon Avenue, or at the New Bedford Health Department-operated clinics - including Andrea McCoy Recreation Center, New Bedford Health Department mobile clinics, and homebound vaccination appointments run by the Health Department and EMS. Gift cards will be distributed on-site for first doses, beginning on Wednesday, May 19.”
Mitchell Presents New Bedford FY2022 Budget to City Council
NEW BEDFORD In a special New Bedford City Council meeting on Wednesday night, Mayor Jon Mitchell presented his administration’s $431 million municipal budget for Fiscal Year 2022.
Mitchell said 75 percent of the budget – almost $287 million – consists of fixed costs that include mandated assessments, state mandates, required net school spending and regional agreements. He said fixed costs have taken a larger chunk of the city’s budget since 2014, when 69 percent of municipal funds were allocated for those kinds of expenses.
“Pandemic or no pandemic, they threaten to crowd out still more (city) services for the foreseeable future,” Mitchell said via Zoom during Wednesday’s virtual city council meeting.
NEW BEDFORD A city church filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday against Mayor Jon Mitchell, the city s health director and Gov. Charlie Baker alleging they violated First Amendment rights by implementing discriminatory capacity restrictions on places of worship amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
New Life South Coast Church, a Christian church on Cove Road, is seeking the immediate lifting of capacity limits as well as damages. In its 19-page complaint, the church argues the state has favored business and leisure over religion by loosening restrictions for the former while keeping burdensome restrictions in place for the latter. The regulations make it easier to meet at Applebee s or an AMC theater than at New Life, the complaint states. This cannot stand.