NORTHAMPTON — In its second hearing since its creation this summer, a budget task force heard the public’s concerns about the city’s financial health and impending Proposition 2½ override next year, which Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra has said is necessary to maintain services amid rising costs and uncertain state and federal funding.
The 13-member Fiscal Assessment Community Task (FACT) Force is charged with analyzing revenue, current city and school expenditures and “economic trends and constraints,” taking into consideration their financial impact on residents, according to Sciarra.
The task force’s creation followed a challenging budget planning season last spring in which the mayor reiterated warnings that voters will likely have to decide on an override — a voter-approved increase in the city’s property tax levy limit — next fiscal year.
Gathered in the cafeteria of Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School last Wednesday, residents raised concerns about the city’s finances, with some stressing that more funding should be allocated toward the schools. Others inquired about the potential override, suggesting that multiple override options be presented to voters when it comes time to vote.
“I’d be very curious to hear what kinds of override options are available when we present people with options for an override,” said city resident Jess Dawson. “When it comes time to present any kind of recommendation, it might be very helpful to include [an example of] how the average cost of whatever is proposed would play out per household.”
Dawson explained that presenting tiered override options would give Northampton voters a choice about whether to maintain or increase education funding. She said residents would then be able to see what each override option would be able to provide for the school district.
Some residents expressed concerns with the city’s spending on the downtown redesign known as Picture Main Street, while others, such as Northampton Public Schools paraeducator Paula Rigano-Murray, discussed school funding.
Rigano-Murray explained that in her 17 years working as a paraeducator, she has developed a distrust of the city’s overrides, saying that the tax increases had been pitched as a way to better fund the schools, but later brought about only modest increases to the school budget.
“Trust is a real problem when it comes to the override. I think that educators have really gotten out, hit the pavement, and promoted past overrides that were sold as: ‘we needed to support the schools,'” she said.
In further discussions over the city’s five-year spending plan, and how schools and infrastructure projects fit into the city’s capital planning, FACT Force Chair Robert Boulrice said it seems as though the task force, based on community input, will have to brainstorm ways to re-evaluate the city’s capital management processes.
“I think what we ultimately will end up doing by the time all is said and done is to make some recommendations that are process-related,” Boulrice said. “We may not give you numbers, but we may give you suggestions on how things can be done better in the future. We are at a point now where we have a structural imbalance — we’re spending more money than we’re taking in on recurring costs.”
After it garners community feedback on the city’s spending, the FACT Force will review its five-year Fiscal Stability Plan and present its findings to the mayor and City Council. The task force is expected to meet again Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 5 p.m., toward the goal of presenting its findings to City Council and the mayor at the end of November.
The task force is made up of 13 members, including Boulrice as chair and Julie Spencer-Robinson, Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School trustee, as vice chair. Other members are City Councilors Rachel Maiore and Garrick Perry, and School Committee member Alena Bartoli along with Julie Asbornsen, Samuel Masinter, Margaret Riddle, David Meininger, David Murphy, Al Simon, and two student representatives.
