The city of Springfield, Massachusetts has a budget in place for the new fiscal year that begins July 1st.
The Springfield City Council voted 11-2 at a special meeting Tuesday night to adopt a nearly $878 million budget for Fiscal Year 2024 exactly as recommended by Mayor Domenic Sarno.
The mayor told Councilors that he was “very appreciative” of the vote.
“11-2 vote sends a strong message,” Sarno said.
The new budget increases total spending by just over 7 percent with the administration attributing the increase to price inflation and contractually-obligated wage increases for hundreds of municipal employees including cops and firefighters.
It maintains basic city services, expands hours at some neighborhood public library branches, and funds additional pre-school classroom space. Last year, Springfield became the first city in the state to offer universal full-day pre-school.
“It is a good budget and we do a lot of initiatives,” Sarno said.
By law, the Council can only cut, or reject outright, spending proposed by the mayor. No cuts to the budget were proposed before the final vote.
City Council President Jesse Lederman, who is also a candidate for mayor in this year’s municipal elections, said councilors did their due diligence. Earlier this month, there were two lengthy hearings where Councilors had an opportunity to question department heads and agency directors about their budget requests. For the first time, additional public hearings on the budget were held outside of City Hall.
“What I set out to do was facilitate every opportunity for the City Council to highlight where we believe more needs to be done as well as areas being well-served and I think we met that goal,” Lederman said.
It is likely that property taxes will go up next year to pay for the budget, but by how much is uncertain.
City Councilor Justin Hurst, another candidate for mayor, called for a pledge from Sarno to provide tax relief.
“I can’t vote for this budget as is without significant commitments to help out those that are struggling right now,” Hurst said.
Joining Hurst in voting against the budget was Councilor Tracy Whitfield. She confronted Sarno over a lack of any line item in the budget for the Board of Police Commissioners.
“Mr. Mayor, we need to do more to make sure they have the resources that they need because public safety comes in many forms,” Whitfield said.
Sarno, who lost a lawsuit brought by the City Council to force the creation of the civilian police oversight board, said it is “fully-funded” through moneys in the accounts of the police and law departments.
Prior to taking up the budget, Councilors authorized a series of transfers to use surplus cash. They voted to put $5 million in free cash toward offsetting next year’s property tax levy. They sent $2.5 million to the city’s Department of Public Works for use on street and sidewalk repairs. A proposed $3 million transfer into a new “Neighborhood Enhancement Fund” was held amid questions over how the fund would be administered.
The largest share of the surplus cash, $17 million, was sent to the reserve fund, or “rainy day account.” Councilor Zaida Govan, joined by Hurst and Whitfield, opposed the transfer calling for more of the free cash to be put toward property tax relief. She said people can’t afford a big jump in taxes next year.
“That would put them in a place where they might have to sell their house or they might have to move and we want people to stay in Springfield and I have said that time-and-time again,” Govan said.
Sarno said he will revisit the issue of property tax relief in the fall when there is a clearer picture of property valuations, state financial aid, and how much has to be raised to balance the budget. He said he is reluctant to drain down the rainy day account.
“We have to guard against – I hope it doesn’t occur – a recession and I want to keep core services and some initiatives we have going,” Sarno said.
Last year, at Sarno’s urging, the Council approved using $10 million in free cash to offset the property tax levy, but the bill for the average single-family home in Springfield increased by $200.
The city has increased property tax exemptions for low-income seniors.
A program that allows seniors to perform a few hours a week of clerical work for the city in exchange for writing-off part of their tax bills is being brought back, officials said. It was suspended during the COVID pandemic.
