Cyr: Council Faces Funding Problems

Cambridge will need to make drastic cuts in next year's budget to keep the city in sound fiscal health, according to Councillor Edward N. Cyr.

Pointing to figures released last week by City Manager Robert W. Healy and City Treasurer James Maloney that indicate the city will exceed its ability to tax by $300,000 in the next fiscal year, Cyr said that the city must act now to trim the upcoming expenses.

Cyr sponsored an order saying that residents had not yet realized the gravity of Cambridge's financial state and called for a "city summit" to discuss creative ways to reduce expenditures.

"I am imploring all councillors to put aside little concerns with the profound sense of significance of this challenge," Cyr said during Monday night's meeting.

Cyr's order also warned city officials and citizens that they may be forced to try to override Proposition 2 1/2, the state law that forbids towns from raising property taxes more than 2.5 percent over the town's levy limit. The levy limit is a sum based on the value of real estate within the municipality. In recent years Cambridge has had more flexibility in setting tax rates, because it has remained below this mark.

However, Cyr said the city is threatened by the Weld Administration's proposal to cut local aid by 10 percent. Such a reduction would cost Cambridge $4 million at a time when declining revenues from property taxes brought on by the state's recession already put the city in the "perilous position" of losing its former levy flexibility.

"For the first time in eight to ten years we are at our levy limit. And it is a dangerous place to be," said Cyr in an interview after the meeting. "It is a disaster. We need to act now. A small step this year will allow us to avoid walking off the cliff next year."

The council's fiscal debate permeated the entire session as the legislative body debated the expenditure of $6 million of unexpected revenue from the Cambridge Hospital.

The revenue, which was generated because the hospital served an extraordinarily large number of patients, will be used to cover costs and make new capital improvements in both the hospital and Neville Manor, the city's nursing home. In addition, approximately $1 million will go to creating a new health clinic in the Riverside neighborhood of Cambridge, which hospital administrators say will further increase the number of patients using the hospital.

Although the expenditure passed unanimously it sparked the longest debate of the evening. Councillor William H. Walsh asked Healy and Cambridge Hospital Administrator John O'Brien how many people use the present Riverside clinic. Walsh also questioned the wisdom of spending money on the hospital improvements when the city faces drastic budget tightening.

"As we sit here I understand the city faces severe fiscal problems. We can't recruit new police officers, we face teacher layoffs and no increase in pay for teachers," said Walsh.

But Healy said the money for the clinic and the other expenditures are necessary to make the hospital more profitable in the long run and to ensure the institution's long-term stability.

"The recommendation is to appropriate the sums necessary to cover the costs and make those capital improvements necessary," said Healy. "It is an investment in the future. We are at a critical juncture."

Vice Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72 agreed with Healy and took particular note of the need for an expanded clinic in the area.

"[The present Riverside clinic] is inadequate in every way," said Reeves. "I think we should be proud of the neighborhood health clinics. An expanded clinic would be able to serve a broader cross section of the community."

Unlike the previous week, an air of civility permeated this Monday's meeting.

Last week Councillors Walsh and Sheila T. Russell delayed several of the council's orders because they said they were not invited to a press conference to announce a new proposal to revamp the city's rent control policy. In response to Walsh's and Russell's action, Councillors Francis H. Duehay '55 and Jonathan S. Myers delayed the rest of the orders.

But this week's housing plan sparked no such response as councillors from both sides of the political aisle expressed approval for the proposal and said they were anxious to discuss the plan.

"We have opened up debate in a way I don't recall before," said Cyr. "I hope we can have a city housing policy before we go home for the summer."

Walsh said that he agreed with Cyr and that the proposal was a constructive base from which to begin meaningful discussion on the city's housing problems.

"Some of my ideas I've been advocating for years are in the proposal," said Walsh. "I don't necessarily agree with everything but the dialogue has been opened."

Reeves also lent his voice in support of the measure and said it was an important first step to looking beyond rent control for the solutions to the city's lack of affordable housing.

"It is important to focus on housing and its many different aspects--to look at housing as a whole rather than just rent control," said Reeves.

In other business the council approved a motion supporting an opinion by Secretary of Laboratory Animals Stuart E. Wiles that the Draize eye test and the LD 50 test should be used only as a "last resort."

Earlier Myers proposed an ordinance outlawing the Lethal Dose 50 test, which exposes a group of animals to a substance being tested until 50 percent of the group dies, and the Draize test, which tests the effects of cosmetics on the eyes of rabbits.

According to Wiles, under the city's present ordinance, he already has the power to stop the tests and will allow their use only under extreme conditions.

"The regulation of research on animals can be adequately and effectively handled under our current ordinance," said Wiles