City Councilors in Springfield, Massachusetts are scheduled to hold hearings this week on the city budget for the coming fiscal year.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno has proposed a $755.7 million budget that calls for a 3.9 percent increase in spending over the current budget and for the seventh consecutive year does not dip into the so-called “rainy day” fund to make up for any revenue shortfalls.
" No layoffs, all services move forward, and (it is) quite a testament to our fiscal discipline and stability that we have here," Sarno said.
To balance the budget the city is able to use $12.1 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds and is also banking on more than $15 million in guaranteed payments due from the MGM Springfield casino.
T.J. Plante, the city’s Chief Administration and Finance Officer, said the economic impact of the pandemic has meant more than $9.5 million in lost revenue for the city from such things as hotel room taxes, motor vehicle excise fees, and city permit charges.
More than $40 million has been spent by the city to respond to the public health emergency. But Plante said nearly all of it has been covered by money the city has received from Washington, averting the need for budget cuts.
"We fully funded all vacancies, there is no impact on core services," Plante said. "That was kind of a big deal to make sure that we maintained all the services we had."
During a briefing for members of the City Council’s Finance Committee ahead of the budget hearings, Lindsay Hackett, the deputy chief administration and finance officer, said the proposed spending increase is a result of fixed costs including negotiated pay and benefit increases for some of the municipal workforce and a higher payment into the city’s pension fund.
"We don't have a lot of new things included in this budget," Hackett said.
In addition to there being no layoffs or cuts in basic city services, the Finance Department flagged other budget highlights as continued spending on libraries, parks and recreation programs, sidewalk and street maintenance, and committing $250,000 in city funds for early childhood education.
City Council President Marcus Williams has scheduled two rounds of budget hearings that will take place remotely on June 8th and 9th to hear from municipal department leaders about their spending requests.
"And then from there, of course, the mayor would have to present his budget to the City Council and then following that would be that same night the vote on the budget with the expectation that there will be two to three nights scheduled for that in case we can't finish it the first," Williams said.
The Council has until July 1, 2021 to approve a budget, or the one proposed by Sarno automatically goes into effect. The Council is only permitted by law to make cuts to the budget proposed by the mayor, or approve it as is, but cannot increase spending.
