AT-LARGE CITY COUNCILOR DAVID FLAHERTY
On Thursday evening, the City Council voted, following the recommendation of the Finance Committee, to set the tax levy for this fiscal year at $62,571,972. This amount is $2,000,000 less than the maximum amount allowed under Proposition 2 1?2, and will mean that taxes in Westfield will only go up, on average, about 7/10ths of 1 percent. Property taxes for the average residential taxpayer will only increase by $30, and property taxes for the average commercial taxpayer will only increase by $105.
In order to do this, the Finance Committee recommended that approximately $950,000 from expected Free Cash (approximately $3 million left over from last year) be allocated to cover shortages in the estimated revenues for this year (FY14), and that $2,000,000 of the Free Cash be given back to taxpayers in the form of a one-time rate reduction.
If the City Council did not do this, taxes would have gone up over 3.4 percent on average.
Because Free Cash has not been certified by the State Department of Revenue yet, the Council had to do some finagling in order to get the budget to balance so that tax bills could be sent out on time: approximately $1.2 million was temporarily taken from the Stabilization Account, and another $1.8 million or so will have to be temporarily trimmed from another expense line item (to be determined by Mayor and City Council). This line item will be restored, and the Stabilization Fund will be replenished, upon Certification of the Free Cash.
In the past I have voted against withdrawals from Stabilization and reductions in the tax rates for very good reasons. I feel that the city is in a weak financial situation, and that the city has HUGE snowballing debts and obligations. We need every penny of taxes, and a lot more, to be able to pay all of the obligations we have. I feel that our Stabilization account is intended to cover emergencies and/or one- time large capital expenses. Others feel differently, and feel that these snowballing debts are nothing to worry about, and the Stabilization account should be used for operating expenses. They continue to spend money and commit to labor contracts with unsustainable terms. Back in June when we were preparing to vote on the budget, the Finance Committee spent many many hours studying the budgets and made recommendations to cut about $1.25 million in expenses (about 1.25 percent) in order to balance the budget with what we felt were realistic numbers. This suggestion was met with insults, personal attacks, and threats of massive layoffs and cuts in services. Due to this pressure, the Council voted on a very narrow split vote to accept the Mayor’s budget as presented – even with the Finance Committee unanimously suggesting that the budget was unrealistic. In order to demonstrate my concerns to taxpayers, I spent hours preparing easy-to-understand spreadsheets and videos. You can see them online at www.cityofwestfield.com/2014-budget.
Now, less than six months later, when it’s time to set the tax rates, the Mayor came to us with a request for withdraw over $1.2 from Stabilization in order to balance his budget and set the tax rates. To me, this validates the efforts made by the Finance Committee back in June, validates the revenue-side concerns expressed in my videos, and further reinforces my belief that the Mayor and many members of the City Council do not want to make the hard choices necessary to live within our means. There is little effort to address our snowballing long-term debts and obligations, and there is little effort to control the unsustainable growth rates in the cost of labor and benefits.
I do not believe that the Free Cash would have been used to reduce our long-term obligations, and do believe it would have been spent on items that exceeded the requested and approved budget expenses. Therefore, instead of leaving Free Cash available for allocation, I agreed that it would be better to return a large portion to taxpayers in the form of a rate reduction. This will force the City administration to live within its budget, and give the taxpayers a much needed break.
This break is only temporary. In future years, taxes will have to be raised significantly to pay for all of the services we expect and require from the city, and to pay for all of the obligations that have been deferred.
In closing, I’d like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, and I hope that the New Year will bring you and your family health, wealth, and happiness.
Dave Flaherty, Westfield City Councilor [email protected]
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of the Westfield News.
