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Springfield City Council To Begin Budget Review

WAMC

    The City Council in Springfield, Massachusetts has scheduled a series of public meetings on the budget proposed to operate the city in the next fiscal year.  The first of the four scheduled budget review sessions is later today, with a final vote by the council tentatively set for mid-June. 

    City Council President Orlando Ramos has scheduled four meetings to allow Councilors to conduct department-by-department reviews of the spending proposed by Mayor Domenic Sarno in the $629 million budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1st.

   A final budget vote by the full council is tentatively scheduled for June 14th.

    Sarno, who unveiled the proposed budget and sent it to the council three weeks ago,  said it calls for no layoffs, maintains core city services and popular programs and amenities, fully-funds all labor contracts, hires 17 new firefighters and pays for a new police academy class of 50. 

   The proposed budget is balanced without tapping the city’s cash reserves and it proposes to increase the $40 million “rainy day fund” by $5 million.

   City Councilor Tom Ashe predicts councilors won’t find much to fault in the proposed budget.

  "We'll have good conversations I am sure," said Ashe. " I expect positive conversations."

   City Councilor Tim Allen, who chairs the Finance Committee, said he remains concerned about the city’s unfunded pension liability, which ranks as the highest in the state.

    " I spent a lot of time on the pension liability last year and I want to follow through on that," said Allen.

    Sarno said the administration has adopted an “aggressive” plan to put $58 million into the pension fund, a nearly 15 percent increase over this year’s contribution.

    " But to be fair, that comes from the bottom line of the budget and takes away from services too," said Sarno.

    Under the city charter, the City Council can cut but cannot add to the spending recommended by the mayor.

    The Springfield School Committee, earlier this month, voted to adopt a $406 million budget for fiscal year 2018.

    Superintendent of Schools Dan Warwick said the schools faced “stinging” fiscal challenges including the loss of more than $44 million for grant-funded programs over the past few years, rising expenses for supplies and escalating costs from charter and school choice assessments.

    "We are not going to have any layoffs, we cut some unfilled positions, " said Warwick. " The biggest cuts have occurred at Central Administration where we've taken 64 positions out over the last four years to make the priority the schools and not cutting back our teaching force in the schools."

    Warwick said the budget includes $7-8 million to fund a new contract for the district’s 2,600 teachers.

     A tentative agreement between the administration and the teachers union, the Springfield Education Association was announced last week after more than a year of negotiations. Teachers worked this year without a contract.

Warwick said the proposed salary structure guarantees that no Springfield teacher, regardless of current pay level, makes less than the average pay for teachers across western Massachusetts.

" Everybody wins in this contract," said Warwick.  " I think the minimum ( pay) increase in the contract is 9.2 percent over four years."

A ratification vote by the teachers union is scheduled in mid-June.

 

   

  

  

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
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