Adopting Chapter 329 of the Special Acts of 1987 gives city councils the power to reallocate additional funds to the school budget if the local school committee identifies specific areas recommended for additional funding beyond what is included in a mayor's proposed budget -- with budgets still required to be balanced, such that cuts elsewhere would be required. Up until recently, I was under the impression the Somerville City Council already had that power, as the relevant portion of Mass General Law doesn't contain any mention of a need to adopt anything.

However, two weeks ago we learned the City Clerk and Law Department had researched this and arrived at the conclusion that Somerville would need to accept the provisions of that 1987 act, and this would need to happen this month in order for it to go into effect on June 1. City Council President Judy Pineda Neufeld introduced a council order accepting those provisions at our May 8 regular meeting, and the item was sent to the Finance Committee for a recommendation.

On Tuesday night, the Finance Committee took up this item at our committee meeting. We heard from the Law Department how something that appeared to not require local acceptance in Mass General Law actually does because of how the Special Acts of 1987 were incorporated into Mass General Law. We also heard that unlike a vote on other items, the Mayor's signature is required to accept this and the council can't simply override that with supermajority. This is significant because shortly before last night's meeting, the Mayor issued a statement saying she would not be signing this acceptance.

Ultimately, the Finance Committee voted 3-0 to recommended that the full council vote to approve acceptance of these provisions at our May 22 regular meeting. Barring a last-minute change of heart by the Mayor, this won't be accepted for Budget Season this year, but I believe there's still value in the City Council doing our part by voting to accept it.

As I said lTuesday night when discussing the item, it seems clear to me that the state intended for local municipalities to have this mechanism, in spite of the weird drafting approach on Beacon Hill that still requires local acceptance. And given that mayors might be unwilling to empower their municipality's legislative branch by signing this acceptance, we definitely should be asking our legislature to fix this glitch and remove any requirement of local acceptance.

Even if this provision won't be in place this year as we take up the FY26 budget, I would like to see the School Committee's specific recommendations for additional funding beyond what is including in the Mayor's proposed FY26 budget. I want to see the City Council gain the power of budget reallocation as has happened in Boston by following the same path Boston did: an Attorney General-approved ballot question for voters. This limited reallocation power could've been an interesting trial balloon for the council to see if they can come together on budgetary decisions.

Instead, we'll need to wait for our next mayor to sign the acceptance of the provision in order to bring this power to the Somerville City Council. It's the right thing to do, even if it slightly erodes executive power. And it doesn't necessarily mean chaos during Budget season, as it can lead to more productive negotiations between the Mayor's Office and the School Committee.