First, Happy Father’s Day to all the dads!
For the past two weeks the City Council Finance Committee has been meeting with city department heads to review their budgets as submitted by the Mayor. We’ve met with about a dozen departments already, and we have more meetings next week with some of the biggest departments in the city: Fire, Police, DPW, and Information Technology.
As I mentioned in previous articles, the Mayor’s proposed budget assumes a major property tax increase (approximately 3.5%), $500,000 in new hotel and meals taxes, and the withdrawal of over $900,000 from our limited free cash account.
The budget does not fund some very necessary items, and it completely ignores our snowballing obligations related to retiree benefits – yet again.
DAVID FLAHERTY
On Thursday, the City Council voted to increase the hotel tax by 3%. I voted against this. I’ll also be voting against raising the tax on meals. I don’t think it’s appropriate to raise the taxes when we haven’t made any real efforts to address the spending problems, and are completely ignoring the debts and obligations. If we were increasing taxes, and the new taxes were going to be used to pay off debts, or be earmarked for something of high priority like road repairs, I’d probably vote a bit differently. However, I can’t justify raising taxes on everyone who lives, works, visits, and eats in our city to pay for raises and benefits for city employees – particularly when we’re ignoring critical issues in the city, and not preparing to address the $300 million in unfunded obligations to those same employees.
I also am concerned that we are quickly approaching our Levy Ceiling of 2.5% of total assessed value. When we hit that ceiling, we will be unable to raise taxes anymore without overrides or new growth. This is what Holyoke is dealing with right now. I’d prefer to adjust our spending behavior now, rather than kick the (growing) problem down the road a few years. If we hit the Levy Ceiling, and we still have the meals and hotel tax option available, it may allow us to address a critical need in the future. If we use it up now, we’ll lose that option.
Many of the regular working folks in Westfield are struggling to make ends meet, and many have not received pay raises in years, or if they have, they’ve been rather flat. Senior citizens on social security have not received a cost of living increase. These people cannot afford more taxes. I’m getting closer to retirement, and even though my wife and I both work, we’re looking forward and wondering if we’d be able to justify or afford paying the large real estate taxes to live in Westfield when we retire. It’s going to be a huge expense. Many residents and businesses are finding that it’s too costly to stay in Westfield.
I received dozens of messages and emails from people just like you who have similar concerns and who want the city to manage the budget better. They want the city to live within its means. They don’t want never ending tax increases. They want their roads fixed. And, they don’t want to be on the hook for massive government employee retirement benefits.
The largest departments in the city are the: School, Police, Fire, DPW, and information Technology. In order for use to control the budget, we have to make adjustments in these departments. There’s no way around it. This isn’t easy, and there are hardly any “painless” cuts that can be made. If we want to eliminate the new taxes, preserve some of the free cash, and reduce the massive tax increase, we have to make budget cuts to these big departments. It’s mathematically impossible to reduce the overall budget significantly without touching these departments.
The first department that got notice of a suggested reduction was the School Department. The Finance Committee recommended a cut of $600,000 – about 1% of their proposed budget. This was much less than the number we need to avoid the massive tax increases, and it still leaves them with a budget that is higher than last year. FYI, over the past few years, we’ve lost about 550 students, and our annual school budget has grown over $7 million. We can’t continue this way.
You may have recently read that the school were going to layoff a bunch of teachers. On Friday, the news now says that the retirement incentive allowed them to avoid layoffs. That’s great news, and it’s the kind of thing they should look at on a regular basis if it makes financial sense. However, one thing to think about is that when presenting their original budget, there were no pay raises in there – there were only steps and education incentives. After a $700,000 cut, the School Committee ratified a contract that called for 1.5% increases this year, and 2.5% increases each year for the next two years. When the Finance Committee suggested a cut of $600,000, the School Department suggested that it was impossible, and that it would be devastating, and that they’d have to layoff a bunch of teachers. Now, about a week later, they are saying “no pink slips went out”. Good news, but to me it also shows that there is wiggle room in their budget, and with the right motivation and creative thinking on their part, they really can operate with less money. Kudos to them.
Just so you know, last week I requested a bunch of documents from the School Committee so that I could review their claims of costs and cost savings related to the new contract. In their article last week, they claimed that they did some sort of analysis and that the received input from the City Auditor and the City Treasurer. I asked for “Detailed minutes of School Committee meetings for the last 6 months and all associated documents presented at those meetings that contain financial details and projections of costs and cost savings associated with the recently ratified Teacher’s Contract” and “Detailed minutes of any meeting with the City Auditor or the City Treasurer related to the recently ratified Teacher’s Union contract, and all associated documents presented at those meetings that contain financial details and projections of costs and/or cost savings associated with that contract.” I received two inches of paperwork today. There are no documents nor meeting minutes that discuss any projections of costs or cost savings. Nowhere is there any evidence that anyone looked at the total annual costs, nor the long-term costs of this contract. The contracts are there. The hourly rates, steps, incentives, etc… are there. But, there is no analysis of total cost or long-term cost. Regarding the Auditor and Treasurer, the City Solicitor’s cover letter says “the City Treasurer or the City Auditor have not attended any School Committee meetings so there are no documents”. This is as I expected. And, it’s one of the things I’ve been discussing for years. We need to know the true costs – BEFORE the contracts are signed.
For a few councilors, touching the School Department budget is like touching the third rail in the subway. A few are saying “no cuts to schools”. Next week we’ll hear “no cuts to police”, “no cuts to fire”, and “no cuts to DPW”. These are all great sentiments, and I’d love it if we just had unlimited piles of money lying around to do whatever we wanted. But, the reality is we don’t. We have limited resources, and a taxpayer base that can’t take much more. We are approaching our Levy Limit, and we have massive snowballing obligations. We have to live within our means while addressing all of our needs. We can’t let departmental budgets grow and grow.
Making these recommendations isn’t easy, and voting to cut some budgets isn’t easy. But, it needs to be done. Several councilors have made claims about not raising taxes or keeping taxes down. This is impossible without cutting expenses. You can’t have it both ways.
We need to hear from you. Please review the city budget (on the city website) and reach out to your City Councilors and express your opinions. Please plan on attending the 2017 Budget Public Hearing on Monday the 27th at 6PM. Mark your calendars. It’s only a couple of hours on one day of the year. You’ll learn a lot about the budget, and you’ll be able to give input that will help the City Councilors make decisions about taxes and spending. Thank you.
On a closing note, I’d like to wish everyone a peaceful, respectful, healthy, and fun summer. We live in a crazy world right now, and there is too much disrespect, violence, pain, and suffering. We deserve peace and security, and we need to respect everyone’s views and personal lifestyle choices – as long as they don’t harm others. Prayers and condolences to those who lost friends and family members in the Florida terror attack. I hope that my kids and grandkids will live in a more respectful, prosperous, and peaceful world.
Dave Flaherty
Westfield City Councilor
[email protected]
- If you are looking for a nice family activity this summer, Westfield Babe Ruth is hosting the 14 year-old World Series at Bullen’s Field in August. Teams from all over country will be here competing. For the next two weeks you can get discount admission tickets online at www.WestfieldWorldSeries.com.
