148 MIL. DOLLAR BUDGET

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE While Mayor Michael Bissonnette said the new city FY09 budget reflects some of his cost-saving efforts, he hasn't yet put in place some of the efficiencies he has in mind.

The reason? "Bureaucratic resistance to consolidation. No one likes change," he told Reminder Publications last week.

Bissonnette is seeking more consolidation that might mean a reduction in city jobs, although he said those jobs would be eliminated through attrition rather than layoffs.

And he is still looking for a way to consolidate the storage for the city's fleet of vehicles from hybrid sedans to garbage trucks. He said now that some of the most inefficient vehicles are parked at a site across town from where they are fueled.

Bissonnette said his administration has to look for "every savings on energy that we can."

"I want to be pro-active and wring every dollar," he added.

He said that his administration has to do a better job explaining why more consolidation is needed.

Saving money and creating more efficiency is important to the city budget as a whole as local aid was level-funded by the state, he said. Chicopee saw a four percent increase in school aid, he added.

Of the $148 million municipal budget ,$65 million comes from state aid and $59 million comes from property tax. Bissonnette said the city "absolutely" depends on the state aid to cover the expenses the city's revenues can't.

Bissonnette said, "The important things about the budget is there is no cutback in services, no reduction in the educational opportunity for children, no layoffs and no fee to play sports or to ride the bus."

Bissonnette would like to move forward with some of his proposed capital improvement projects which include a new senior center and improvements to the police station and City Hall and said the city will be assisted in that effort by an improved bond rating set by Moody's Investor Services. The better rating came about in part from the "cleaning out" of $52 million in old debt, the mayor explained, and will allow the city to borrow money at a lower interest rate.

One of those projects that will benefit from the lower rate is the federally mandated flood control project that will strengthen the Connecticut River levees. Bissonnette said he was resistant to the demands of federal officials to spend city money on the project until he saw the importance of the levees preventing flooding along the Mississippi River.

He said the city has a self-imposed cap on borrowing the state would allow Chicopee to borrow up to $100 million that allows affordable loan re-payments.

Bissonnette said the city's current stabilization fund has $8.7 million and once the city's free cash is certified, he will be requesting a transfer to make the stabilization account $10 million.

He said that Chicopee is in a different situation as some of its neighbors as the city has "missed many of the financial and social ills that have hit many other communities in the area."