RICHARD E. ONOFREY JR.
WESTFIELD – The City Council will conduct a workshop tonight to review the budget cut recommendations approved by the Finance Committee last week.
The committee voted Thursday to cut nearly $1.5 million from the proposed 2014 fiscal year budget, including cutting an additional $685,000 from the school department budget, because of its concerns about the future revenue and expenses projections used to create the budget.
The workshop, slated for 6:30 p.m. in the South Middle School auditorium, will provide an opportunity for the other 10 City Council members to discuss those cuts and assess the impact on city departments.
City Council President Brian Sullivan said that he would open the special meeting, and then turn it over to the Finance Committee chairman, Richard E. Onofrey Jr., to conduct the budget review.
“Every cut they voted on will come before us,” Sullivan said. “Any additional cuts that weren’t discussed in that committee could also be brought out for consideration.”
The Finance Committee members slashed nearly $600,000 in one-time, non-recurring capital expenses that they feel should not be funded through the city’s operational budget at the session last week.
The committee said that the budget, as presented by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik, was $391,571.70 in the red. The initial goal of the committee 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 committee then cut an additional 1.25 percent from most city departments to achieve its second goal of reserving debt payment capacity of at least $1.3 million.
Knapik’s budget incorporated that debt payment capacity in the operational budget, mostly salaries, meaning that that money would not be available next year as debt begins to climb unless jobs are cut to reduce salary outlay or a substantial increase in property tax revenue occurs.
Sullivan said that each line item cut will be presented and will need “at least seven votes to be passed or killed.”
“City Hall officials will be present to address the cuts and the ramifications of those cuts on city departments,” Sullivan said.
Several city officials have expressed that the cuts made last week are too draconian and are being made too late in the budget cycle to be absorbed within departmental budgets.
“They won’t get the cuts earlier in the cycle given the time it takes us to get the numbers,” Sullivan said.
The other factor every year is the level of state aid to local communities, numbers still being hashed out in the Legislature as the House and Senate reconcile their separate budgets.
