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Date: 6/30/2021
WESTFIELD – After 10 Finance Committee meetings of the Whole and Special City Council meetings to review the fiscal year 2022 (FY22) budget, the City Council voted on June 24 to cut $1 million from the Engineering construction line-item during a reconciliation meeting and move on to a final vote on the budget on June 28.
At the meeting on June 28, the mayor asked to reduce the amount of free cash to balance the budget by a corresponding $1 million, which passed on a vote of 9 to 2. The final vote on the FY22 budget of $135.5 million then passed the Council 8 to 3, with two members absent and Councilors Dan Allie, Dave Flaherty, and Nicholas J. Morganelli Jr. voting no.
At-large Councilor Dave Flaherty, who made the motion to cut the funding from Engineering, said capital costs can be paid from stabilization instead of the general budget.?“It’s an easy, justifiable thing. We can cover the $1 million reduction with the hope that the mayor would resubmit with a stabilization request,” he said, before the proposal passed 7 to 5.
This was the first substantial cut made to Mayor Donald F. Humason Jr.’s budget?request of $136.5 for FY22, a $6 million increase over the 2020 budget. When he presented the budget on May 27, Humason said this year was very different from a year ago, when he presented a very conservative budget during the middle of the pandemic.
This year’s budget had included a request to transfer $2 million in free cash to the general fund. Humason had originally intended to ask for $1.5 million, but after the school committee voted not to reduce their budget request, he upped that amount.? Last year, the school committee reduced their request by $2.5 million at the mayor’s request, and this year increased their ask by $2.3 million.
At the school committee’s vote on May 19, committee member Diane Mayhew spoke for the majority of her colleagues. “We are seeing a school funding crisis unlike anything we’ve seen before. In this crisis, I feel that we need to spend more money than we’re used to spending, because of the learning loss that has already occurred. I also see our budget as an investment – there is always a correlation between the funding and outcome. I believe this school budget shows the district’s priority and spending plan. I believe it’s a fiscally sound budget,” Mayhew said at the meeting.
“We expect this year to be a pretty good year financially, and there will be money that we’re not accounting for right now that will end up going back into free cash,” Humason said when presenting his budget to the council.
During the June 24 reconciliation meeting, Flaherty objected to the use of free cash to balance the budget.? He also made a motion to cut $300,000 from the school department, which failed on a vote of 5 to 7. This was his second attempt to cut the School Department budget by that amount, after a motion on June 10 was also defeated.
Another motion by Flaherty to use Ambulance Enterprise Fund monies to pay for firefighter benefits after moving five firefighter positions back under the Fire Department, which would have netted $500,000 for the general fund, was also defeated.? At-large Councilor Richard K. Sullivan Jr. led the objection to the motion. “Taking it out of this fund long-term is not a good move for the city,” Sullivan said.
Also at the June 24 meeting, Council President Brent B. Bean II called the amount of money that the city has this year in free cash and stabilization “unbelievable,” and said there is more and more money coming from federal and state sources, even for dams and levees, which he said never happens. “We’re flush with money right now,” he said.
After the final vote on the FY22 budget passed, Finance sub-committee chair Ralph J. Figy reflected on the process. “This has been a long and arduous process, a road with a lot of twists and turns. [I think] it was a good way for councilors to be able to ask questions of department heads, instead of just the Finance committee,” he said.