NORTHAMPTON — Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra provided a review of the city’s finances for the first half of the current fiscal year on Thursday, amid concerns over rising property values, school staffing cuts and an uncertain future with regards to federal funding.

The presentation was giving during a joint meeting of the City Council, School Committee and the board of trustees for the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School. Sciarra started off the meeting by it saying that the days since the inauguration of President Donald Trump had been “incredibly stressful, anxious, and disturbing,” with Trump issuing a barrage of executive orders as well as a since-withdrawn memorandum that looked to halt all federal funding.

“In addition to being very concerned about the rights and safety of members of our community, there has been constantly changing information that we are trying to decipher to figure out its impact on our community,” Sciarra said. “Honestly, in this state of incredibly hard uncertainty and perilousness, producing something or like this presentation has at moments seemed a little bit farcical.”

At the same time, however, the mayor acknowledged that residents were feeling the effect of rapidly rising home values in the city, leading to higher property tax bills despite a lowering of the overall property tax rate. Over the last three fiscal years, the assessed value of the average single-family home in Northampton has increased by 52%, from $352,329 to $536,905, a higher percentage than anywhere else in Hampshire County, according to the state’s Division of Local Services.

Sciarra noted the city also had various relief options for those facing high property tax bills, such as a volunteer work program for seniors and veterans.

“The city has options for those who are older and who have less income,” Sciarra said. “I strongly, strongly urge residents who may qualify to contact the assessor’s office to discuss possible tax relief options.”

A significant portion of the meeting focused on the school budget, which makes up more than half of the city’s $122 million overall budget for the current fiscal year. The school budget was a strong point of contention during the most recent budget approval, with heavy resistance from those who supported a budget that would have avoided job cuts, something Sciarra said would be fiscally irresponsible.

On Thursday, the mayor reiterated her stance on using reserve funds, saying that the current situation with the uncertainty of federal funding made such reserves even more crucial. The city has $11 million in cash reserves, along with $35 million stored across various stabilization funds, though several of those funds have special use designation limiting their ability to be used to fund schools.

“There are things outside of our control that can have a very big effect on our budget and our ability to maintain services,” Sciarra said. “It’s important when creating a budget, at any level, to be cautious and not overestimating fluctuating revenues.”

Ward 4 School Committee Member Michael Stein, who had supported a larger school budget, pressed Sciarra on whether the city was underestimating its preliminary cash reserves for the budget, as well as not raising the planned cash reserves as a percent of the overall budget. Stein alluded that such measures were signs the city was not seeing schools as a priority in its planned appropriations.

“It is reasonable to conclude that educational needs are the area the city is choosing to balance its budget upon,” Stein said. “It sounds like we didn’t want to raise money to actually meet our operational needs.”

In response, Sciarra denied that the city wasn’t prioritizing schools in its budgeting process.

“It is not at all the case that the schools are a burden. I think they are our primary concern, which is why we have worked so hard to direct as much funding as we can,” Sciarra said. “I really hope that the School Committee this year can have a very full and robust conversation about what the real needs are and talk about future planning.”

Johanna Radding, a member of the group Support Our Schools, a political action committee dedicated to increasing school funding in Northampton to prevent cuts, said in a statement put out on Monday that a limited increase to the school budget for the next fiscal year could mean more staff cuts.

“The mayor’s budget outlook gives no indication that she plans to address the very real crisis staff cuts have created for our schools, and for the students and educators who have borne the brunt of her decision. We need to level up services so that children’s social, emotional, and educational needs can be met after decades of underfunding.”

Sciarra also provided some updates on the current revenues from various taxes the city has received this fiscal year. Cannabis excise taxes currently stood at more than $574,000 for the year, on pace to exceed last year’s revenues, while parking remained at about the same level as last year.

“This is an area that has been slower to rebound post-pandemic, likely in part to a switch to remote work that hasn’t changed,” Sciarra said of the city’s parking rate. “But it is starting to tick back up, and we have data that indicates that the parking changes implemented in 2023 have successfully encouraged folks to park in the [E.J. Gare] Garage.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.