Latest news with #Chapter70
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
McCabe presents $163.8 million budget to City Council for review
WESTFIELD — Mayor Michael McCabe presented the fiscal year 2026 budget of $163.8 million for review to the City Council at its meeting on June 5. 'This budget has been a difficult budget to prepare,' McCabe said, and specifically thanked City Council President John Beltrandi and Finance Committee Chair Ralph Figy for helping sit in on some of the budget hearings. 'I came before you in March or April and we spoke briefly about issues this budget was going to face and a number of unexpected increases that were beyond the control of the city's management staff or financial team to be able to foresee,' he said, listing special education increases of $1.1 million, transportation increases of $1.3 million, mandatory staff increases of just under a million, contractual obligations of $1.8 million, a health care increase of $5.8 million, utilities cost increase of 15 percent across the board and trash and recycling fees that had a $2.3 million deficit. He said there were also $5 million in inflationary cost increases. McCabe said in FY25 there was also a tax decrease to residents. 'When we used free cash last year to give a tax decrease to folks and offset the budget deficit … that came out to negative one percent,' he said, adding that all in all costs were $17 million over the previous year's budget. He said last year the city used $5 million in free cash to balance the FY25 budget, and the funding is not available to do that again in FY26. Later he said $2 million in free cash was used to balance the FY26 budget. 'Our budget looks like it's going to come in on a free cash balance of 3%. The DOR recommends 5%. I'm not too worried about it, I think when the new free cash number comes in November, I think there will be more than 5 percent overall,' he said. McCabe said there are no new personnel across the board, no vehicles across the board, and an appropriate level of services will be kept status quo. 'There is no real decrease in services in FY26 over FY25, even though we've had this $17 million gap to close.' McCabe said the city closed a couple of schools, specifically Fort Meadow, Abner Gibbs and Franklin Avenue, and added a state-of-the-art Westfield River Elementary School. He said the consolidation in elementary schools helped to reduce costs in personnel and services. Without getting into details about the levy limit and levy ceiling and their interrelatedness to city financing, which he said currently stands at $12.5 million in excess capacity, he said, 'I remember sitting through council meetings in the cheap seats over the last 15 years, and I remember hearing that it was a really good thing if we had excess capacity built into our levy. As as it turns out, the state doesn't want to see excess capacity in our levy, because when you go to them for help, they say 'spend your own money.' ' McCabe said the city expected help from increases in Chapter 70, Chapter 74 and Chapter 90, the state's funding sources, but 'there really was not a lot of help at all.' He said unrestricted government aid went up $120,000, 'which isn't really an awful lot of anything.' In his letter to the council, McCabe said the plan is to spend $3.5 million of the excess capacity in FY26. 'By doing so, better positions to receive state funding, especially Chapter 70 and Chapter 74. This also means we will return to using only minimal free cash this year, and hopefully no free cash in FY27.' McCabe suggested in reviewing the budget, that councilors go to the Mayor's recap in the beginning of the budget for a thumbnail read. He also suggested looking at pages 194-214, the appendices in the back of the budget, 'they will walk you through all the items I just talked about.' 'If you're looking at it, you'll see how we tried to balance the budget. There are only three ways to balance the budget; through new growth, you can pick up through some local receipts — this year we're going to get an advantage of a local recept that is significantly higher than it's been before, and you can do it through taxation and excess capacity monetary use,' McCabe said, referring to the additional $2 million that will be generated by the increase in the trash collection fee. He said without new growth, the only thing left to do is tax at 2.5 percent and then tax the excess capacity at 2.5 percent, which added to the $2 million in free cash and $2 million increase in local revenues was how the budget was balanced. He said the mayor's cut sheet shows the cuts made to city departments of $3.2 million, It also shows a positive offset of $3.5 million in the insurance category. He said the School Department budget was cut by $5.2 million, but saw a four percent increase over FY25. 'It's important to realize that a four percent increase, while greater than the city budget, is a necessary increase. Unfunded mandates are crushing the School Department budget and crushing the taxpayer,' McCabe said. 'I've tried to address it with the governor. The problem lies within the legislature - the body that creates the rule and then they don't fulfill the rule that they create. They're the only ones that can fix that rule. If you have any influence with your state legislators, I would urge you to ask them to fund where they say they're supposed to fund,' he added. McCabe gave two examples of funding disparities from the state. He said the Massachusetts School Building Authority is supposed to be funded at 80 percent. The Westfield River Elementary School cost $16 million, and the city was reimbursed $32 million, roughly 50 percent. He said to be fair, the MSBA created their own exemptions. 'If they exempt pieces of the puzzle, they can still say that they're funding 80 percent of the non-exempted pieces of the puzzle,' he said. The other exemption was the funding of Circuit Breaker for special education expenses. McCabe said they are supposed to be funding at 75 percent, but are instead funding at 44 percent. 'That little difference is worth about $1.5 million,' he said. Before running off to the Westfield Technical Academy graduation, McCabe thanked Auditor Vicki Moro, who created the 214 page document, Assessor Ashlie Brown, Personnel Director Anne Larkham, Treasurer/Collector Matt Barnes, School Business Manager Shannon Barry, Solicitor Shanna Reed, City Councilors Ralph Figy and President John Beltrandi and Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski for all the help they have been in working collaboratively on the budget. 'I greatly appreciate their assistance,' he said. The budget was sent by the Council to the Finance Committee for review. Finance Committee reviews were scheduled for June 9, 10, 11, 16 and 17 beginning at 5:30 p.m. in various rooms in City Hall. A financial overview and public hearing for the budget is scheduled for June 23 at 6 p.m. in Room 207, City Council Chambers. On June 24, also in Room 207, city councilors will review the entire budget and make recommendations. On June 30, councilors will vote on the budget. The schedule of meetings is posted on the city website at The budget is also posted on the website under departments, auditor, Fiscal Year 2026. Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Southwick Town Meeting tackled 28 articles on warrant
SOUTHWICK — The auditorium at Southwick Regional School was packed last Tuesday for Town Meeting to decide on 28 articles on the warrant. The meeting, led by Town Moderator Celeste St. Jacques, kicked off with the 'housekeeping' articles, which included items like authorizing the Select Board to sell or trade obsolete equipment and allow the town trust funds to be invested according to the state's 'Prudent Investment Rule.' Requested by Town Clerk Christie Myette was Article 7 to allow her to revise the town's bylaws. The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission has suggested the town's bylaws be 'cleaned up' by shifting them in logical order and renumber. There will be no revisions of the bylaws themselves. All were adopted unanimously. Article 8 was approved, which was to rescind Article 22 of last year's Town Meeting related to a property on Berkshire Avenue a family trust in Connecticut offered to the town. It was found that resolving issues with the deed would cost the town too much. It was adopted unanimously. Article 9 asked Town Meeting to authorize borrowing $16 million to build a town-owned fiber-optic network. After a contentious debate that lasted nearly an hour, Town Meeting voted it down. The authorization needed a two-thirds majority. The vote was 353 for and 204 against. The article missed being adopted by 15 votes. Article 10 asked Town Meeting to approve the town's annual budget. It did. The final general government budget approved was $13.6 million which was a 2% or $238,514 increase from last year. It also approved the DPW Sewer Division budget of $1.4 million, which was a 4% increase from the previous year, and the DPW Water Division budget of $1.58 million, which was 2% increase from the previous year. Article 11 was a borrowing authority of $1 million for road repairs. It passed unanimously. However, before it passed Jeff Dunlap said the town should consider borrowing more next year because $1 million is only a band-aid for the extensive repairs needed. Finance Committee Chair Joseph Deedy said residents should be prepared to authorize a much larger amount in the next year or so. Article 12 was to create a revolving account for the Conservation Commission. It passed unanimously. Article 13 was to set the maximum amounts of various revolving accounts, like Local Lake Permitting and the Economic Development Commission. It passed unanimously. Article 14 was for the town to accept Revere Road and portions of Salem and Concord roads. There was one no vote. It passed. Article 15 was to approve $20,000 for the costs associated with the taking of easements for the newly accepted roads. It passed unanimously. Article 16 was to appropriate $737,164 to pay for the tuition of students who attend school out of district for vocational education. The town will get about $230,000 from the state's Chapter 70 funds next year. It was approved with a few naes. Article 17 was to approve appropriating $14.4 million for the annual assessment of the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District. District Superintendent Jennifer Willard said that six teachers and two coaches were laid off to balance the district's budget. It passed unanimously. Article 18 was a request by the school district for a borrowing authorization of $515,000 to design a new boiler for the Woodland School ($103,000), study and design a boiler for Southwick Regional School ($220,000), and $192,000 to rehabilitate the track. That amount was reduced by $100,000 after Town Meeting approved a Community Preservation Committee allocation of that amount for the track. The authorization passed with a few noes. Article 19 was a request by the CPC to approve its annual budget. Town Meeting authorized the reservation of $59,601 for funding Open Space projects, Historic Resources projects, and for Community Housing projects, respectively. It also asked Town Meeting to reserve $387,411 for the Community Preservation General Unreserved Fund, and to reserve $29,800 to cover administrative and operating expenses of the CPC. It passed unanimously. Articles 20, 21, and 22 were CPC-requested allocations of $66,650 to the alum treatment debt service, $670,000 to build six pickleball courts at Whalley Park, and $100,000 for the rehabilitation of the track. All passed with a smattering of naes for each. Article 23 asked Town Meeting to approve a new general bylaw to protect, preserve and enhance public parks, beaches, recreation, [and] conservation areas. It needed a two-thirds majority to be adopted. While 166 voters approved it, 70 voted no, which didn't meet the two-thirds threshold. Article 24 asked Town Meeting to adopt a new public nuisance bylaw. It needed a two-thirds majority to be adopted. After a voice vote, St. Jacques ruled it didn't reach the two-thirds needed. Article 25 as Town Meeting to approve a new accessory dwelling unit bylaw. Essentially, it established a bylaw that allows what are often called mother-in-law suites 'by right' in district zoned residential. It also needed a two-thirds majority to be adopted. St. Jacques ruled after a voice vote the article reached the two-thirds threshold to be adopted. Article 26 was an amendment related to the ADU bylaw involving site plan review. It passed unanimously. Article 27 was a citizens' petition asking Town Meeting to adopt a new bylaw to require hunters to get permission from the owner of property they hunt on. While 96 voters approved it, 71 voted no, which didn't meet the two-thirds threshold needed and failed. Article 28 was another citizen's petition, which asked Town Meeting to rescind the town's short-term rental bylaw, which was approved in at the May 2023 Town Meeting. Before the debate began, town counsel Benjamin Coyle ruled that if there was an attempt to rescind a bylaw, it needed to go through a formal process that involved the Planning Board and public hearings. No vote was taken. Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cities seek new plan to replace aging schools
BOSTON (SHNS) – As public school officials registered support Monday for overhauling the state's school construction financing formula, the Senate's education point person said the Legislature may need a dedicated plan for Boston Public Schools. School districts in communities of color and so-called Gateway Cities, which are home to predominantly working-class and lower-income families, are not getting enough state funding aid to build new schools or repair decades-old buildings, advocates and educators told lawmakers. 'Our facilities are in a dire need, and students in Boston have the misfortune of attending schools that are often crumbling and don't have the space for the needs of education today,' Johnny McInnis, a music teacher at Boston Public Schools and political director at the Boston Teachers Union, said at a hearing. 'In particular, the renovation of our vocational school, Madison Park, is pending, and we hope that the state can support our efforts to rebuild this vocational school.' McInnis testified before the Joint Committee on Education as part of a panel backing legislation from Rep. Daniel Cahill and Sen. Brendan Crighton (H 526 / S 318) that would pump more money into the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The bill increases the amount of sales tax revenue dedicated to the School Modernization and Reconstruction Trust Fund, allows school districts with a 'disproportionate need for school building renovations or replacements' to use up to 1% of their Chapter 70 aid on renovation or replacement expenses, and removes the 80% reimbursement cap for school building projects, among other reforms. Committee co-chair Sen. Jason Lewis indicated a follow-up conversation is needed with Boston stakeholders, and the Winchester Democrat said he would also be happy to speak with BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper and Mayor Michelle Wu. 'The challenge obviously with Boston is it's so much larger than any other district, and there's so many school buildings that are in need of renovation,' Lewis said. 'Seems to me we need to come up with a dedicated plan and partnership with the MSBA. I know there's been some conversation about that. My understanding is that Baltimore came up a number of years ago with a plan, working with their state legislature and all their local stakeholders because they, similar to Boston, had many old buildings that needed renovation or to be rebuilt.' Lewis later acknowledged that other school districts — including Worcester, Springfield and Lynn — also fall into a 'unique' category of needing a substantial volume of building renovations. Crighton, a Lynn Democrat, pointed out the city has more than 13 schools that are over a century old. 'This bill, as you heard earlier, certainly is intended to help the MSBA,' Crighton said. 'We appreciate the work that they do to continue to build schools across our commonwealth, but we believe that these well thought-out and vetted reforms could go a long way to really help Gateway Cities like Lynn.' Lynn has built only one new school in the past 25 years, Mayor Jared Nicholson said. Another new school building project is also 'on the brink of financial viability,' which he credited to the Legislature and to the MSBA for boosting its reimbursement level. 'But without reform, we're going to have to go another generation to be able to afford to build another school under the current system that we have,' said Nicholson, who outlined 'creative solutions' Lynn has deployed like transforming a former bank office building into a high school. 'We're a whole elementary school short as it is,' the mayor added. 'That's just in terms of capacity — never mind the quality of the facilities and that the increase in construction costs, as you know, create a huge disparity in the formula, which is disproportionately borne by municipalities, given the cap on the reimbursement rates.' WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Northbridge Town Meeting votes to put tax override for schools on election ballot
Northbridge Town Meeting approved placing a question on the May 20 town election ballot asking if voters will approve a nearly $5 million Proposition 2½ override to make up a spending deficit in Northbridge Public Schools. The vote at Town Meeting was 413 in favor of placing the override on the ballot, and 205 voting in opposition. Following approval of Town Meeting, which approved the question on Tuesday night, voters in the town will decide in two weeks on whether or not to approve a $4.95 million override to support Northbridge schools. "I'm a big supporter of public schools and it is not about having the resources to send my kids somewhere else, it is about investing in a town and a community that has a lot of new people," Liz Roach, a parent of two Northbridge Elementary School students, told the Telegram & Gazette. "The town has a lot of potential, and instead of arguing about what happened in the past, we need to look at where we are currently and look at all the families who want their kids to have a quality public education." If the override is approved, the money would be used to help balance the budget over the next five years, with $700,000 being factored into the budget for next fiscal year, and the amount marginally increasing over the following five years. Heather Adler, a member of the Northbridge School Committee who presented the Town Meeting article to put the override question on the ballot, said that over the years, local and state Chapter 70 funding have not kept pace with the rise of inflation. "The amount that is provided from the state and the local level can't keep up with the rising costs – and our district only spends 1.7% over the required minimum of what our sister districts are spending, so we can't keep up with inflation," Adler said. "We've tried to keep up with cuts and moving positions around where we can, and leaning into our revolving account – which is intended to be an emergency savings, to manage the deficit." According to the School Committee, if the override is not approved, cuts will have to be made, including reductions to school staff, the dissolution of middle school sports teams, and a reduction in AP courses taught at the high school. School bus fees may also be increased. "If we don't have the override approved, there are nine positions we are looking at moving, including the librarian at the elementary school. A majority of the cuts would be at the elementary school because in the past we have looked at the middle and high school to make some cuts," Adler said. Northbridge has 1,838 students, including elementary, middle and high school. Interest in getting the override approved has led to increased political activity among some Northbridge parents and concerned residents, such as Roach, who along with other parents launched Residents for a Stronger Northbridge to encourage approval of the override. "We tried to vote for an override in 2014 and it was voted down," Roach said. "Consistently I guess there are about 2,500 people in Northbridge that will vote against spending more for the schools. Our position is the school budget is the most scrutinized budget. We are hoping that this activates a lot of the newer people in our community." This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Northbridge Town Meeting puts tax override for schools on ballot
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Southwick budget increases 2% over previous year
SOUTHWICK — Despite the Finance Committee requiring every department in town to submit a budget 5% less than the previous year, early estimates of the property taxes needed to fund the town's budget for fiscal 2026 indicate taxpayers will be paying more, and it is primarily because of an $865,000 increase to fund the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District. 'The problem is mostly around the schools and the assessment for the schools,' said Select Board member Douglas Moglin during a joint meeting between the board and the Finance Committee Monday night to hammer out the final details for the fiscal 2026 budget. 'We have to make some cuts to make sure the budget works,' said Town Accountant Laura Fletcher during the meeting. 'Unfortunately, there were some increases to the school assessment … we were hit with [increasing the amount of funding for] out-of-district students,' she said. That assessment was a nearly 12% increase for the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District's over last year's budget. According to the budget approved by the Select Board and Finance Committee Monday, the district's assessment to the town for fiscal 2026 will be $14.4 million, which is nearly half of the $28.6 million in estimated revenues needed to cover all government operations for the upcoming year. The primary driver of the school district's increase is the assessment Fletcher referred to, which is $737,164 to pay tuition for students who choose to attend vocational or technical schools outside the district. Last year, the district learned that Southwick taxpayers had been inadvertently paying out-of-district tuition for Granville and Tolland students. There was some expectation that once the state began allocating Chapter 70 funding to Granville and Tolland to pay for its students to go out of district, Southwick's taxpayers would get some relief from the school assessment, which Select Board member Jason Perron mentioned during the meeting. 'We were looking at some savings, but it didn't turn out that way …everything's going up,' he said referring to an increase in health insurance costs for district employees and town employees. Finance Committee Chair Joseph Deedy said during the roundtable budget discussion every available cut that could be made to this year's budget had been made, but he was worried about next year's budget. As the Finance Committee began developing the budget earlier this year, the heads of every department in town were asked to submit a budget that was 5% less than last year — last year's budget was level funded. 'Most departments were fine with it … they get it,' he said, but added he was worried about the future. 'I'm scared for next year,' referring to the school district's budget. He talked about how the town generates its revenues, which is primarily through property taxes. The town is projected to have property tax revenue of $26 million for fiscal 2026, $746,018 more than last year's $25.26 million. But that could change if property values decreased, Deedy said. 'Housing is our growth. We're going to slow down as new growth goes, but if we lose any value on the housing side, we're done … we're done for next year,' he said. Fletcher reminded the board and committee members that the property tax revenues used to build the budget were estimated and could change. Because of that, the estimated property tax increase expected to be approved in October has a difference of 30 cents. The current property tax rate is $15.57 for every $1,000 of assessed value. The expected rate for next year is between $16 and $16.36, according to budget documents. There were also several capital requests by the Police Department and DPW cut from the budget. The Police Department requested $21,000 to purchase a new fingerprint machine and $10,000 to pay an outside consultant to update the department's policies and procedures, which Perron, who serves as a police officer in Westfield, had an issue with. 'Why are you not writing your own policies and procedures?' Perron asked Police Chief Rhett Bannish. Bannish said it was the most cost-effective way to update the regulations, instead of having him, with a salary of over $100,000, spend the time needed to do it. Perron, speaking of his experience, said his department does it. 'We don't do it all at once,' he said, again referring the Westfield Police Department. That prompted member Diane Gale to ask if his department had the assistance of an attorney. 'Yes,' Perron said. 'We don't,' Gale shot back. Then Perron said he had called several police departments in the area and learned that most write their own policies and procedures. 'I'm not a fan of hiring an outsider to come in and write our policies,' Perron said. Bannish then spoke directly to Perron. 'I trust you'll give me a list of the chiefs that write their own policies,' he said. Moglin then got involved. He said it was his understanding that the department's fingerprint machine 'would live to fight another day' after it had been serviced. Bannish said a technician had rebooted the machine and it appeared to be working properly now, and added if the issue couldn't be resolved, the company would provide another machine for free. Moglin suggested using $10,000 of the $21,000 needed for a new machine and putting it toward the policy and procedures update, which was approved. The Police Department nearly always gets funding for two new cruisers each year. This year it asked for a cruiser and a truck, which would be used to pull the department's boat. Instead of purchasing a new truck, it was decided to rebuild its motor, which Moglin was not 'thrilled about.' 'We'll throwing good money after bad on that truck,' he said. He warned the committee and board that the truck request would be made again, if not next year, at least the year after. 'I don't think it's the best use of the town's money,' he said. When the board held a vote to approve spending $20,000 for the truck's repair, Moglin voted no, with Gale and Perron giving it a thumbs up. As for the DPW, it was announced that the roll-off truck it requested, and initially approved by the Finance Committee, would not be purchased this year because replacing the compactor, an $80,000 capital expense, at the transfer station was needed more. And the pickup truck it requested to replace the truck used by DPW Supervisor Rich Bozak was nixed. Department Budgets for fiscal year 2026 General Government — $3,118,329, which is a 1% decrease from last year. Public Safety — $4,080,108, which is a 6% increase primarily because of the Police Department budgeting for an additional officer. Public Works — $2,087,749, which is a 1% increase from last year. Human Services — $412,341, which is a 5% decrease from last year. Culture and Recreation — $736,404, which is a 1% increase from last year. Total Debt, Interest and Insurance — $3,184,568, which is a 1% increase from last year. Total General Government — $13,615,344, which is a 2% increase from last year. Sewer Department — $1,396,526, which is a 4% increase from last year. Water Department — $1,575,736, which is a 2% increase from last year. EMS — $1,592,272, which is a 4% decrease from last year.
