WESTFIELD – City residential, businesses and industry taxpayers will see a tax increase of less than 1 percent because of creative legislation approved last night, if the Department of Revenue accepts the action.
The City Council, on the recommendation of its Finance Committee, adopted a motion to cut the tax levy by nearly $2 million dollars, money that the city will not need to raise. Several council members questioned if that action is legal and if it will be accepted by the DOR, which has to confirm the city’s number before tax bills can be mailed.
The council also approved an appropriation of $1,245,368 from the city’s stabilization fund to balance the budget.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik submitted the appropriation request because of tax abatements which included a large statewide settlement for Verizon of $92,000 from 2009 and an increase in senior citizen abatements and other tax appeals for 2011 and 2012 which totaled $144,367.00. The overlay deficits were submitted to the council in June for consideration and acceptance but the council had not acted, which caused a deficit to occur by last night’s meeting.
An additional shortfall was noted in the revenue category of new growth. The mayor had budgeted $800,000 and the actual amount was $642,475. This was well below the 5, 10 and 20 year new growth revenue numbers. The mayor expects new growth to exceed $800,000, as some of this year’s deficit could be attributed to delays in construction of recent new commercial developments which will show up as a positive in next year’s new growth.
Approval required two votes of the council because appropriations of stabilization funds require affirmative votes of at least nine council members. The first vote failed by one vote, with eight councilors voting in support and four voting against the appropriation. The second vote was approved 9-3 after Finance Chairman Richard E. Onofrey said that his committee would make the motion to cut the levy, which would result in a new tax rate of less than one percent. At-large Councilor Kevin Harraghy was absent at last night’s meeting.
Onofrey said that the tax rate, without the levy reduction, would have been 3.4 percent for all classes of property.
“I hear from people, not just in Ward 5, but across the city that taxes are going up far too much, far too fast,” Onofrey said. “People can’t afford to pay those taxes, or to afford to live here in Westfield.
“My motivation is to help out the people who pay those taxes, to give relief from the tax burden on people in Westfield,” Onofrey said. “This will give residential and businesses taxpayers a marginal (tax rate) increase of less than 1 percent.
“The 1.7 million we’re cutting from the levy can be replenished with free cash funds when they are certified by the DOR,” Onofrey said.
Knapik will have to cut that $1.7 from the current budget, taking funds from accounts that have not yet been encumbered until that funding can be restored with the free cash account.
“I want to be sure that once free cash is certified, those funds will be put back into the budget,” Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Crean said.
The council also adopted a 1.63 percent tax shift; the same number as last year, so that any tax rate increase would be evenly divided between residential property owners and commercial, industrial, and personal (CIP) property owners. That shift results in a residential factor of 87.5837 used by the city’s financial officers to set the tax rates for all classes of property.
