For a second year in a row, Northampton's city council has failed to pass a budget. By default, the mayor's original proposal will go into effect. Critics say it comes up short on school funding, even as the mayor says more funding has been found.
Coming up short of a needed-majority Wednesday, the council is now batting 0-for-2 in approving spending plans over the past two fiscal years.
On the table this time around was a $145 million budget put forward by Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, up from last year’s nearly $139 million budget.
The plan accounts for eight new firefighter positions and an additional dispatcher to meet rising demand. Almost a third of the budget covers Northampton Public Schools – about $44 million, almost 6 percent higher than last year.
However, as advocates for higher school spending like Laura Erny emphasized at the city council meeting – it’s not the $46.6 million the school committee has called for.
“NPS enrollment has been declining, as we all know … but it is double the rate in Northampton, compared to the state average, 8 versus 4 percent,” Erny said. “Local families are instead choosing charter schools and private schools and homeschooling - why? To me, this points to the need to increase our community investment in our school system, not reducing it to the point where we cannot fill teacher positions that are lost due to attrition or retirement.”
The budget vote finale took a lot of cues from last year’s debates - the school committee voted on a budget that either maintains or boosts NPS services, while the mayor proposed modest increases, paired with cuts to close deficits.
Ultimately, what the mayor proposed ends up before the council and though the body voted 5-3 in favor, the result was shy one “Yes,” with Council President Alex Jarrett abstaining due to the budget involving an organization he works with.
Among the “No” votes was Council Vice President Rachel Maiore.
“Every year, it's our chance to break the cycle … and it will take courage and calculated risk and a shift in mindset, but when essential services like our schools are in crisis, leadership requires a pivot,” said Maiore, one of several councilors seeking more NPS dollars beyond the mayor's spending plan. “As leaders, it is actually on us to change the conversation, schools aren't … a bottomless money pit. They are one of the smartest investments a city can make.”
This year’s budget did not feature calls for layoffs like last year’s to address growing costs at NPS. Instead, through opting not to fill roles left open by attrition and retirements, and also reducing services – Sciarra and school leadership appeared to plug any major gaps.
At the same meeting Wednesday, the mayor also described how an additional $217,000 was recently identified – destined to bring back some programming and two teaching positions.
“Altogether, the amendment that you have before you and these freed ITS funds, the total is $217,711, and at the school committee meeting, the committee authorized the superintendent that night to use the funds to immediately work to hire two additional high school teachers … and to also reinstate the elementary school garden program,” the mayor said.
The council approved the amendment, but with Jarret’s abstention and Councilors Maiore, Quaverly Rothenberg and Jeremy Dubs primed to vote “no”– the budget’s failure appeared inevitable.
Still, members like Councilor At-large Garrick Perry said he would vote “Yes,” adding that while it’s not perfect – he looks forward to finding solutions in the future.
“This budget reminds me that if we really take a good look and see how we can improve - we're never going to have a perfect budget, but we have to start going towards the goals that we need, and so, while I think there can be more - there's places that I wish we could give more money to or ways to make everyone happy - I am willing to say that this is the step,” Perry said.
Rothenberg, meanwhile, said the budget was a missed opportunity to restore what’s been lost in previous cuts to NPS, and that the mayor had failed to build consensus.
“The schools are continuing to have to do more with fewer and fewer resources every year,” the Ward 3 councilor said. “So, the pivot that I would be talking about for Ward 3 is not one of ‘Let's see how we can pivot to have the schools do more with less,’ because that's what they're already doing every year. The pivot we're looking for, what I'm looking for, for Ward 3, is to stop under-funding them.”
Throughout the budget process, Sciarra reiterated that funding NPS sustainably with reliable funds remains a priority.
The mayor has also said that in order to allocate the extra $2.7 million the school committee sought for the district, city departments would, hypothetically, need to make around cuts nearing 8 percent, amounting to a potential loss of 51 positions in the city.
