EASTHAMPTON — On the heels of contentious talks involving the mayor, city and school officials over funding for the school district, the City Council unanimously approved Mayor Nicole LaChapelle’s $48.5 million spending plan for next fiscal year.
The budget for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, has increased by 5.75% from the previous year’s $45.9 million budget. Councilor Dan Rist indicated Wednesday during the council’s budget hearing that in previous years, LaChapelle was more conservative in her estimate of revenues and often required supplemental appropriations to catch up.
“It’s a huge increase,” Rist said. “The mayor is much more confident this year in her revenue and her team’s revenue expectations, which is why we can present this budget with confidence.”
Although the city’s Finance Committee did not make an official recommendation for the budget because two councilors abstained from the vote, Rist, who is the chairman of that committee, said each line item was discussed.
Councilor Thomas Peake also noted that with the non-binding, “good faith” agreement signed by LaChapelle, School Committee Chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski and City Council President Homar Gomez, that initial vote for a recommendation on the fiscal year 2023 budget at the Finance Committee was made in the absence of that agreement.
With the agreement, further understanding, communication and collaboration is established between city government and the school department. The agreement grew out of extensive budget discussions at the School Committee and City Council meetings after LaChapelle proposed a budget that was approximately $560,000 less than the school department’s requested $18.45 million.
“It was a very complicated process,” said Peake, referencing the work that went into helping to establish the agreement. “I’m good to vote on all of these.”
LaChapelle’s $17.89 million proposed school department budget was approved without changes, and as such will see a 4.63% increase from the current year.
As per the agreement among LaChapelle, Kwiecinski and Gomez, the school department agrees to pay to operate the district with level services. LaChapelle told the Gazette that she interpreted that as meaning the school department agrees not to lay off any staff.
Kwiecinski did not return a call seeking comment.
The city’s fiscal year 2023 budget is broken down into 10 different categories: general government, public safety, education, public works, human services, culture and recreation, debt, unclassified, Community Preservation Act and enterprise.
“I want to say how thrilled I am to be able to vote on this tonight … and just applaud the city because we had a shared vision. Not one person reached out against funding the schools. The whole city shared the vision,” said At-Large Councilor Lindsey Rothschild. “Even though I regret that teachers had to leave the school year feeling anxious, kids had to feel anxious, parents … I think in the end, I’m really proud to live in Easthampton and be a parent here.”
The budget hearing was not without comment from the public as some residents expressed dismay over funding for public safety. Resident Shelby Lee took issue with how the city has funded the police department.
Public safety will see an increase of 19.96% from the previous year with an approved $6.76 million budget. The public safety category includes police, dispatch and fire and ambulance as well as building inspection services.
“I’m sure most, if not all of the budget, will pass as is, but I have to express my sadness at seeing this body continue to underfund and under-support many of its municipal assets while continuing to significantly increase budgeting and incentives for the police department. The police department in this town gets whatever they ask for, whenever they ask for it. And this is not at all the situation for most of our other municipal assets,” said Lee. “The School Committee even had to get a special letter and agree to a third-party audit to get the same flexibility with funding that the police department has already been receiving without question.”
Enterprise includes sewer, wastewater and water departments as well as the enterprise reserve. This section of the budget will see an increase of 1.7% to $2.8 million.
The unclassified section includes contributory retirement, workers compensation, Medicare, employee benefits, liability insurance, the reserve fund and unemployment. This section of the budget will see an increase of 5.29% to $9.93 million.
The general government will see an increase of 19.53% to $2.33 million. This category includes the City Council, mayor and city attorney, licensing, the auditor, assessor, treasure and central purchasing, technology, collector, human resources, city clerk, elections and registration, planning and building operations.
The Department of Public Works budget will increase by 2.27% to $1.9 million; culture and recreation, which includes the Emily Williston Memorial Library and Parks and Recreation, will increase by 5.41% to $642,197; and Human Services, which includes the Health Department, Council on Aging and Veterans Services, will increase by 14.29% to $749,700.
The largest increase for human services is for the Board of Health and Health Department, Rist said.
“Given the pandemic and the fantastic work that they’ve done, it was recognized by the mayor that they need some assistance, so there’s been a staffing increase,” he said.
Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.
