By far, the most important item in this week’s Lowell City Council agenda is the presentation of the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget.

Whether in-depth discussion takes place Tuesday night remains to be seen, but you can bet there will be plenty of chatter at the June 4th meeting, when the Public Hearing is scheduled.

Over the weekend, City Manager Tom Golden answered “2.5%” when asked what percentage tax increase the budget calls for. That’s lower than the 3.5%-4.0% we had been hearing and reported in our April 22nd Council preview, and significantly lower that the 9% increase over the first two Golden budgets (5.5% in the FY2023 budget and 3.5% in FY2024).

I’ll reserve commentary on the overall package until more details are hashed out, but I did want to point out that one of the major “fiscal challenges” facing the city is an 8.5% average increase in health insurance premiums for the GIC.

What happened to the promised health care savings from Mass Health and Obamacare?

I mean, for those not paying a penny, there certainly have been “savings.” But for the rest of us, including Government workers, it sure seems like those lofty promises of 2006 and 2010 haven’t been kept, doesn’t it?

The agenda item that has me the most excited, however, is motion 5.5 by Councilor Corey Robinson:

To the eleven councilors and the Manager, I implore you….no, I BEG YOU…pass this motion and implement it as quickly as possible.

We learned last week that a similar portal connecting New York City and Dublin, Ireland was temporarily shutdown because of inappropriate behavior ranging from open drug use and images of the 9/11 attacks on display, to a woman dancing provocatively on the portal and a well-known OnlyFans model flashing the friendly people of Dublin.

Having seen the “ingenuity” with which Mill City residents greeted the arrival of the VeoRide bicycles, I am salivating at the prospect of what our citizenry could do with this particular 21st century technology.

So let’s scan the list of our Sister Cities, pick one pronto (Kalamata, Greece would suffice…my people can more than hold their own in the decadence department), and please pass the portal!

Hell, I’d offer to livestream it here at www.InsideLowell.com.