The third-largest city in Massachusetts will have a balanced budget in place when the new fiscal year arrives July 1st. The Springfield City Council Monday night adopted intact the budget proposed by Mayor Domenic Sarno.
The city council voted 11-1 to approve a $595 million budget for fiscal year 2016. The vote came after several councilors praised the budget and commended Sarno and the city’s finance team for producing a balanced budget that maintains core city services, avoids layoffs, hires more police and firefighters, and does not dip into the city’s cash reserves to make up for revenue shortcomings.
Councilor Kenneth Shea, who chairs the council’s finance committee, said the city administration had done a “magnificent job” in crafting the budget.
"Does it have bells and whistles? No. But, I think it is a great job well done. The city is in good hands," he said.
Sarno addressed the council at the beginning of the special meeting and urged them to approve the budget.
" I am proud to put this across," he said.
Prior to Monday night’s budget adoption hearing, which lasted less than an hour, the council held three public hearings where the heads of the city’s 35 departments and agencies were questioned about the budget.
The lone vote against the budget came from City Council President Michael Fenton.
" I thought generally speaking it was an appropriate budget, but I am very concerned about our unfunded pension and retiree healthcare liabilities, " he said. " Budget decision we make today will have ramifications on future generations if we don't tackle the elephant in the room, which are unfunded liabilities."
Springfield faces an unfunded pension liability totaling $700 million, according to the city’s chief finance officer T.J. Plante. The city will put $1.7 million into the retirement fund next year and increase that by 6 percent the following year. Higher payments would mean cuts elsewhere in the budget, according to Plante.
Sarno reassured councilors about revenue estimates the budget is based on. He said a $7 million payment from MGM is not at risk if the construction of the $800 million casino is delayed. Reports surfaced last week that MGM might delay the opening of the Springfield casino, tentatively scheduled for late 2017, until the reconstruction of I-91 is finished.
" We will work with MGM, MassDOT, and the gaming commission, but we negotiated a contract and we expect them ( MGM) to fulfill that contract," said Sarno.
Plante said he was also confident the city would receive a $1.5 million increase in local aid even though the state budget is not final.
