WESTFIELD – The state Department of Revenue (DOR) has certified the city’s free cash account at $4.289 million, a million dollars higher than originally anticipated by city officials and which may be used to restore money cut from the current fiscal year budget.
Acting Mayor Brian Sullivan, who takes office officially on Jan. 5, 2016, said that when former Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and the City Council approved the 2016 fiscal year budget, there was an agreement among the council members to restore certain accounts.
Sullivan will seek City Council approval of appropriations totaling $2.1 million, which will be used to restore some budget items and to begin a systematic road improvement program in the city.
“We made cuts which should be replaced,” Sullivan said Wednesday. “We cut $1.3 million from the Health Insurance Premium account. The council understood that if money was available in free cash, that account would be one of the first to be brought back to the full funding level before we made that cut in June.”
Sullivan said he will also use the free cash to address issues of concern to city residents.
“The two issues I heard most often from residents while campaigning were property taxes and the condition of roads in the city,” Sullivan said.
“I will request the City Council to approve an appropriation of $330,000 to reduce the tax levy. That will give a little relief to taxpayers,” he said. “That appropriation will lower the tax rate increase from 2 ½ percent to 2 percent.
“In January I plan to submit a five-year master plan to improve roads in the city,” Sullivan said. “I will request another appropriation of $500,000 in January, when I submit the road improvement plan, so we can immediately begin making those road improvements this spring.”
Sullivan said he will not request appropriation of free cash for operating expenses, an issue raised by several City Council members concerned about the city’s ability to raise sufficient revenue in the future to cover the operating costs without using free case of other reserve funds, such as stabilization.
“The rest of those funds will remain in free cash and will be used if needed, only for non-recurring expenses and one-time programs or purchases,” Sullivan said.
