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Springfield’s Budget Wars Continue as Deadline Draws Near

by Bill Dusty

The Sarno Administration and Springfield’s Chief Administrative and Financial Officer, Lee Erdmann, issued a stern letter to the City Council on Tuesday urging that body to quickly convene and approve of a transfer of funds in order to establish a balanced budget by June 30 for the coming fiscal year. Without the transfers, the letter warned, the City’s budget would be unbalanced and there would be a good possibility of the state-mandated Finance Control Board returning to the city, or even of the city falling into state Receivership.

“At this point in time,” the letter read, “the Springfield City Council has not fulfilled its statutory responsibilities to adopt a balanced budget. The City Council is in danger of ceding its authority to the Commonwealth.”

The City Council last Monday voted to send to committee the mayor’s request to transfer over $16 million in FY09 Free Cash to the city’s Stabilization Fund. City Councilor James Ferrera III at the time proposed transferring $14 million to the Fund and delivering the remaining $2 million to a tax relief fund.

After Monday’s meeting, City Council President Jose Tosado indicated he would schedule a special meeting to go over the transfers before the June 30 budget submission deadline.

In response to the mayor’s letter on Tuesday, Tosado was quoted in a Springfield Republican story as saying the City Council would not act as a rubber stamp for the mayor’s proposals. “What the mayor is seeing is the City Council taking a more active role in overseeing any financial transactions within the city,” said Tosado in the Republican story. “I understand the mayor is frustrated and would like us to rubber stamp his orders. [But] those days are gone.”

Mayor Sarno and the City Council have been going back and forth for weeks, now, as the submission date for a FY2011 budget has drawn ever closer. First came the Council’s Finance Subcommittee chair, Timothy Rooke’s refusal earlier this year to hold Finance Committee meetings until the Mayor submitted an RFP for the Springfield School Department headquarters, which is being re-located to the former federal building on Main Street. (Rooke would eventually hold those meetings, saying at the time he knew his maneuver could only delay them.) Rooke would later learn of another no-bid deal that was in the works – the transfer of the Springfield Renaissance School from quarters at the Van Sickle Middle School building to space at the STCC Technology Park – that would only add fuel to the political fire.

While all of that was going on, talk loomed of a FY2011 budget that would require tax increases on city residents – who already have the highest tax rates in the state. The mayor would later say that such an increase was necessary in order to maintain vital city services. In three alternative budget scenarios – one with a level tax rate and two others with tax reductions – the mayor predicted layoffs and service reductions.

In the latest impasse, the City Council also tabled funding for 15 new police cars and as well as redevelopment funds targeted for the Forest Park Middle School. Tosado complained that the Council had not received sufficient information from the mayor’s finance team before last Monday’s meeting.

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Posted by Bill Dusty on Jun 23rd, 2010 and filed under Bill Dusty, City Hall, Feature Stories, Latest Posts, Springfield. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.