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Date: 5/23/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Growth in the town budget isn’t matching growth in state aid, to minimize increases in the property tax, Mayor William Reichelt told the West Springfield Town Council on May 15.
Reichelt and Town Accountant Sharon Wilcox presented a $120.1 million proposed budget for fiscal year 2024, an increase of 6.12% from the current fiscal year. Reichelt said he looked to gain efficiencies in staffing so he could keep the increase in local property taxes at 3.5%.
Wilcox said the town’s tax rates will remain “in the middle of the pack” among Western Massachusetts cities, but the average single-family residential tax bill — which takes property valuations into account — will be one of the lowest.
Among the cuts Reichelt made to balance the budget was to modify the School Department budget voted by the School Committee — including Reichelt, who chairs the committee — on April 4. The school budget had included funding for several academic support and counseling positions, hired to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, that were previously paid by federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief grants. Reichelt announced in late April that he would instead continue using ESSER funds, which expire after 2024, to pay for half of those salaries.
That move, which several School Committee members criticized at subsequent meetings of their board, does not affect overall school spending for FY24, but does eat away at the town’s ESSER allocation, which school officials had hoped to spend on other projects. School advocates on May 15 said it’s an unwelcome cut in local education spending.
“Why are we contributing fewer and fewer local dollars to the West Springfield schools every year?” asked Adrienne Latham at the budget public hearing. “West Springfield spends significantly less per student than any other nearby town, less than Agawam, less than Westfield, Southwick, Longmeadow, less than Holyoke. Certainly, every town is unique, but why is West Springfield at the bottom of this list every year? As a parent, I see and hear daily how the lack of resources affects my three children and the children of my friends.”
She urged the Town Council, which has the final say on the budget but cannot add to the mayor’s proposal, to approve the school budget as presented without further cuts. School Committee member Diana Coyne also asked that the council support the budget, and her colleague Nancy Farrell made a similar point to Latham’s about per-pupil spending lagging neighboring districts.
Wilcox noted that the proposed budget’s support of the School Department will still increase 5.4%, from $32.12 million in fiscal year 2023 to $34.07 million in his proposed budget. The operating budget for other town departments will rise 6.1%, from $48.96 million to $51.60 million. Employee benefit costs, which are reported separately from operating costs, are up 8.84%, from $21.76 million to $23.69 million. Liability insurance, heat and utilities, and street lighting costs represent smaller shares of the budget but also saw substantial increases, rising 16.76%, 13.44% and 10%, respectively.
While the overall budget is growing by 6.12%, state aid is growing even more. Reichelt’s budget includes about $41 million in state aid, up 13.05% from the previous year. Almost all of that increase is in Chapter 70, the state’s aid program for local school districts. The state aid numbers are estimates, as they depend on the FY24 state budget, which won’t be finalized until later this spring.
Councilors did not discuss or vote on the budget. Council President Edward Sullivan continued the public hearing to June 5, and said the council will take any further public comments, then discuss and possibly vote on the budget at that meeting.