You can make a difference.
Yesterday, a City Councilor wrote an article claiming that reining in the huge increases in the municipal budget would lead to cuts in core services. The issue that was missed, was that many core services such as our roads, and replacement of our century old sewage and drainage lines are not being addressed now. I am not going to use flowery language, I am going to be very straightforward with the people of Ward 3 and Westfield. Our municipal budget is out of control.
The 2018 budget is 5.5% larger than last year’s budget. Unless Westfield can find new revenue (new sources of funding), or utilizes our free cash (unspent tax dollars), or our stabilization fund (emergency funding, under which currently Westfield only has enough to operate for 3 weeks), then Property Taxes are going up, possibly up to $225 more next year. If you spend more than you have, you are in the red, this is plain and simple to understand. No one operates their household budgets this way, and the city should not operate this way. Your tax dollars belong to you, not to the city. The citizens of Westfield are not a piggy bank to break open every time a politician needs funding for their pet projects.
Some of us on the Council proposed reining in spending by reducing the massive budget increases by 2.5% from every line item in the 2018 budget. This was the right and proper thing to do. Even if the municipal budget as amended with a paltry $440,000 in reductions had not passed, we had several weeks to continue working on it. The majority unfortunately chose to pass the buck onto the taxpayer, instead of continuing to work on reducing the budget. We all have our own opinions on the budget and the budget process. No one has all the right answers, but attacking those with a different point of view is not the answer.
The job of the Council is to hold the city’s purse strings, provide fiscal oversight of municipal departments, to provide constituent services, and to bring attention to issues. It’s not the job of the Council to be a rubber stamp on spending, to do so is to neglect our responsibilities. The Mayor’s job is to allocate funding, to manage departments, and to ensure that core services are being addressed. The Council cannot move money around, or add funding to budgets, we only have the authority to reduce spending. If indeed we were successful in reducing the massive budget increases in this year’s budget, then the Mayor would have had to go back, and reallocate funding to ensure critical services, such as Police, Fire, and DPW received the appropriate funding. So, when politicians say that reining in spending would lead to detrimental cuts to services, they are not being honest, and they are trying to create fear to support their point of view.
Many Councilors do not knock on doors, and do not regularly speak to their constituents. I make it a point to knock on your door, to hold office hours, and to hold Ward 3 meetings. This is the only way to discover what your concerns are, and to get feedback from the people I serve. As I have spoken with many of the residents of Ward 3, I can advise that these never-ending tax hikes are making life very difficult for middle class families, working people living pay check to pay check, and seniors living on fixed incomes. $225/yr may not seem like a lot to some people, but to other’s it’s the difference between your son or daughter joining a sports team or paying the mortgage, or between spending money on food or medication for some of our seniors. This is not acceptable.
Maintenance of our core services; water, roads, and infrastructure need to take priority over things that are nice to have, but not a necessity. Westfield roads are in awful condition, everyone knows this. What you may not know, is that we receive about $1.2 Million dollars each year from the state to fix roads and sidewalks. This is known as Chapter 90 funding. For the past several years, more than $5 Million dollars of our Chapter 90 State Road funding has been allocated to the Rail Trail. I am not against the Rail Trail, I just do not believe it is our top priority. The simple fact is, there was never a need to use Road funding for the Rail Trail, we could have been utilizing our Community Preservation fund to construct the Rail Trail all along.
Many of you read about the Cowles Bridge, and the MassDOT weight restriction preventing Westfield Fire Department vehicles from using this bridge onto Southwick Road. According to Chief Regan, this is a hardship and is detrimental to emergency response times. With the exception of ambulances, and the emergency rescue vehicle, all of our fire trucks are now being diverted down Shaker Road, and Granville Road, to reach the South side of the city. WFD has applied for a waiver to allow the use of this bridge, but we still don’t know if the state will grant that waiver. Even if the state grants the waiver, the fact is that past Westfield officials, who knew about the deterioration of this bridge, did not tell the state to make this a top priority project for funding. This quite literally is endangering the lives and property of the people of Westfield.
What can you do about it? The answer is, you can Vote! You can vote for people that will listen to your concerns, and be an advocate for responsible spending, and for ensuring our core services are well maintained. Westfield has had the wrong priorities in the past. Moving forward, we can make the necessary changes to balance improvements and spending. I love this city, and I believe in Westfield and our potential. Speaking with many of you, I know you feel the same way. If your elected officials are not listening to, and addressing your concerns, you can vote for those who will.
You can make a difference!
Ward 3 City Councilor
Andrew K. Surprise
