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Date: 5/23/2023
WESTFIELD — Mayor Michael McCabe on May 18 presented a city budget with $171,916,438 in spending for the fiscal year that begins July 1, which represents a 1.56% increase over the adjusted fiscal year 2023 budget, and a 6% increase over the original FY23 budget. He said the increases are primarily due to rises in oil and gas, utilities and labor costs.
He said his priorities have been making the roads safer to travel, city parks better places to spend time, and delivering “exemplary customer service.”
McCabe said emerging from COVID-19 restrictions, the city had many challenges and had to refocus its finances, balancing a budget with a $2.1 million increase in needs, and estimated new tax base growth of only $900,000, which he said has been declining from a peak of $2.2 million four years ago.
“New growth continues to be a problem,” he said.
McCabe said the city balanced the budget with a 2.5% tax increase, $1.2 million in free cash and one and a half day of premium insurance holidays.
“The focus of this budget remained steadfast in its commitment to pavement, people and parks. There are no new positions or new vehicles in this budget,” he said.
“The challenges we faced were numerous, but with focused effort not insurmountable,” McCabe said, adding that the roads were not in the best shape due to lack of maintenance and funding, and the city spent nearly $5 million this past year on road improvements.
McCabe said for the first time, all the city departments were asked to develop a five-year capital plan. He said the results were sobering, as the requests for year one for ongoing projects and preventative maintenance totaled $93 million, and over five years that number increased to $245 million. He said the good news is the city was able to remove $3.6 million in improvements that had been made this year.
With no discussion among councilors, the City Council voted to refer the budget to the Finance Committee. The council will vote in June on whether to pass McCabe’s budget as-is or make cuts.