WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee spent three hours last night combing through the proposed $113,322,910 2014 fiscal year budget presented by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik looking for line items to cut.
And cut they did, as the committee members slashed nearly $600,000 in one-time, non-recurring capital expenses that they feel should be funded through the city’s free cash or stabilization accounts instead of the operational budget.
Then the board members applied a 1.25 percent cut to most department line items, coming up with cuts as small as 63 cents, up to $685,000 from the school department, which at $55,509,6859 represents about half of the total municipal operational budget.
The School Department is in the red as the School Committee adopted a budget of $56,045,432, already $535,000 above the funding level allowed by Knapik. If the proposed Finance Committee cuts are supported by the full City Council than that deficit between the department’s “budget of need” and the allowed municipal spending will jump $1,220,000 into the red.
The Finance Committee has slated a workshop for the full council membership for Wednesday in the South Middle School auditorium where it will explain its approach to all of the council members in adopting a 2014 fiscal year budget which begins on July 1, 2013. The City Council is slated to meet in regular session on Thursday and could adopt its budget that evening.
The approach of the Finance Committee members is that Knapik’s initial budget was $385,571.70 in the red and that red number has since been increased by another $6,000. The initial goal last night was to find at least that amount, which the members did by eliminating capital outlay items, identifying $587,981.78 in spending that they felt should be funded through free cash or the city’s stabilization accounts.
The second goal of the committee members is to reserve debt payment capacity of at least $1.3 million. Knapik’s budget incorporated that debt payment capacity in the operational budget, mostly salaried, meaning that that money would not be available next year as debt begins to climb unless jobs are cut to reduce salary outlay.
The Finance Committee’s policy has been to keep debt payments at between $6 and $8 million a year to preserve debt capacity so the city can bond for projects and capital expenditures.
The committee members are also uncomfortable with revenue projections given by the administration for the next five year, feeling that the projections are inaccurate on the high side.
“I hate doing this,” Finance Chairman Richard E. Onofrey Jr., said, “but we have to do it. There were no surgical cuts such as we’ve made in the past.”
