After years of tax increases, and tax rates for businesses that are higher than many neighboring cities and towns, all of the taxpayers of Westfield may actually be getting a break.
The City Council tried to cut taxes last December, but the administration challenged our methods, and after a brief legal review, the City Council was unable to deliver on their tax relief plan. During this year’s budget planning in June, the City Council cut the mayor’s proposed budget by over $3.6 million with the clear intention of giving taxpayers a break.
I’ve been fighting to reduce the budget and lower taxes for years. This past June was the first budget I actually voted for as a City Councilor. I voted against all of the others because I felt they were incomplete, were not adequately addressing the long-term debt and obligations, and because I felt that there was no real effort to control costs and cost increases. This year, even though the budget process failed for me in many areas, I felt that the unanimous support for the $3.6 million cut from my city council colleagues was a big step in the right direction.
Since then, the City Council has also strongly opposed increasing the Hotel and Meals taxes as requested by the mayor.
After last year’s debacle, we researched our options and I talked with leaders at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue for guidance. They advised me that the only true way for the City Council to reduce the taxes was to cut the budget in June – we couldn’t make mid-year cuts, nor tell the administration what to use for estimated revenues in various categories. We did that this year by cutting the appropriations by about $3.6 million. We will have to restore some of this, but we knew that the Stabilization and Free Cash numbers were going to be quite large, so we figured we’d use some of that money instead of maxing out what the City taxes the property tax payers.
The city currently has over $6 million in its Stabilization account, and is sitting on over $6.2 million in Free Cash from last year. About $3.8 million of that Free Cash came from a ‘bond premium’. That’s like getting cash back on a car deal – you know it’s built into the total payments. It’s money that the taxpayers will have to pay back over time as they pay-off the bonds. In my opinion, we shouldn’t be spending that money. We should use it to pay off the debts, pay for capital items with cash instead of bonding, or give it back to you the taxpayers.
I still have grave concerns about the city’s long-term debt and obligations, and still feel we are in a mathematically impossible situation, but we don’t seem to have support to address those issues right now. However, we do have sufficient cash reserves, and great support for giving taxpayers a break. Now’s the time to do it.
I’d like to thank former City Councilors Rick Onofrey and John Beltrandi, and this year’s Finance Committee led by Councilor Christopher Keefe. Without their commitment, leadership and efforts, we wouldn’t be in this position.
NOTICE: The City Council has extended the public hearing related to tax rates. If you want a reduction in property tax rates, now is the time to speak up. Everyone is invited to attend the City Council meeting at 7PM on Thursday December 4th. If you can’t make it, please feel free to reach out to any of the City Councilors by phone, mail, or email. Contact information can be found on the City’s website at www.cityofwestfield.org.
Dave Flaherty
City Councilor
[email protected]
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of this publication.
