Decreased spending helps Chicopee through cuts

Date: 2/17/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



CHICOPEE -- With two-thirds of the fiscal year over, the impact of a 10 percent cut in state funding to Chicopee has been cushioned by the reduction not reaching over to the school budget, Mayor Michael Bissonnette said last week.

"The silver lining in the dark clouds is on the education side," he told Reminder Publications.

The $1.4 million in budget cuts made by Gov. Deval Patrick have been anticipated since last fall, he said and plans were made by city departments to cope with them.

Bissonnette said that by a combination of not filling vacancies and cautious spending, the city would avert any lay-offs at this time. He said he has given back his $10,000 pay increase and returned to the stabilization fund the $35,000 that had been allocated to buy him a hybrid Ford Explorer.

Funding of $160,000 to replace lighting fixtures will be saved thanks to an agreement with Chicopee Electric Light to finance the switchover during a five-year period at no interest to the city.

Revenues are anticipated to be slightly higher, which further offsets the cuts, he added.

The challenges posed by the decreased funding to the city for the next fiscal year are even greater, he said. With the anticipated cuts and contractual increases in city salaries, plus the greater cost for benefits and supplies, Bissonnette said there would be a $6 million gap.

He believes that $2 million will be raised through the annual 2.5 percent increase the city can levy in property taxes. If the Legislature passes the proposed penny increase to the state meals tax, Chicopee will receive $1.6 million, he added. The elimination of the telephone pole tax exemption will yield another $1.2 million.

With other reductions, Bissonnette believes the rest could be used from the city's stabilization fund of $8 million.

With the economic crisis, Bissonnette said he "thinks the opportunity is there for added revenues [from the passage of the proposal in the Legislature]."

He added he will be pushing for consolations and efficiencies in Chicopee's government and he said, "Hopefully the City Council will listen."