MARCH (THROUGH NOVEMBER) MADNESS? The race for the 13th Worcester district state representative seat continues to widen, and is now pushing double digits. Added to the list of Margot Barnet, Gina DiBaro, Paul Franco, John Mahoney, Mike Perotto and Bill Trotta are three more candidates, one a familiar face in city politics and two newcomers to public office. District 1 City Councilor Joff Smith, after months of hinting, finally announced his candidacy outside Doherty High School on Thursday, March 18, and noted that he’d be “excited to represent Worcester and Paxton at the state level.” Smith said he’ll focus on job creation, education, stabilizing local aid and chapter 70 funding and helping small business through reducing the cost of health insurance and freeing up credit…Don Sharry, a Worcester west-sider and owner of Comprehensive Employee Benefit Plans, has also announced his bid. “I’m all in, to use a gambling phrase,” he says. Sharry has been at the Democratic caucuses and collecting signatures. Sharry, who says he’s had at least one family member living in the district for close to 100 years, suggests that he’ll bring “fresh ideas” and a “more business-like approach” to the Statehouse, as well as an eye for bi-partisanship, saying “It shouldn’t be this hard to get things done.”…Rumors also have Bruce Card Jr., a Worcester resident and Shrewsbury firefighter, as another candidate in the running, but Card did not return a phone call seeking comment.
SAY IT AIN’T SO, JOE: For those wanting to begin the what-if scenarios surrounding the 13th Worcester race, one thing to pay attention to is with a Joff Smith win, the city of Worcester’s district 1 would be in an odd sort of limbo. Sources have reported that Joe Casello, last year’s runner-up for Smith’s city council seat, has up and moved to Florida, which leaves no replacement to fill the vacancy (the special election charter change that made headlines last fall doesn’t come into effect until next election). The law does allow for Smith to retain both positions (Tim Toomey of Cambridge is both a councilor and state rep), but when asked if that would be his plan, Smith replied “There’s no reason to put the cart before the horse at this point.”
SINKING FOUNDATION: We were warned that Governor Deval Patrick’s proposed budget might have been too good to be true—the one that gave level funding in chapter 70 aid for public schools and 9c Local Aid. Today the state’s House and Senate released their agreed upon numbers, and Worcester’s funding—especially on the state aid side—has dropped. Since the state’s 1993 Education reform act, the state is legally bound to provide every public school district with foundation-level funding—that is the amount of money it needs to function. Due to the growth of the WPS, the Governor’s budget had Worcester targeted for a $1 million surplus over the foundation number this year, but that’s been scrapped, dropping the city’s chapter 70 aid from $192,784,395 to $191,512,804. The state aid to Worcester budget—to which the state government has no obligations like it does with chapter 70—has dropped from a January estimate of $36,614,610 to $35,150,026.
HIDDEN AGENDA: Even though nothing was on the city council agenda about CitySquare (there was, however, the city’s quarterly economic development status report), right away people seemed to know it would come up. The Telegram & Gazette sent a photographer to snap pictures of City Manager Michael O’Brien and the department of Economic Development had what one insider referred to as its “A-Team”: Assistant City Manager Julie Jacobson and Director of Economic Development Tim McGourthy accompanying O’Brien. Sure enough, district 2 City Councilor Phil Palmieri took the opportunity while discussing the economic development report to inquire about CitySquare, and that’s when the details of the transactions between Berkeley Investments and a Hanover Insurance Group subsidiary surfaced.
