So, Greenfield taxpayers, have you decided how you are going to spend that nearly $60 your Town Council just saved you on next year’s property tax bill?
In case you haven’t been paying attention, the Legislative arm of Greenfield government recently approved a 1 percent, across-the-board operating budget cut, a decision reaffirmed Tuesday night after a motion for reconsideration by Ways and Means Chair Ashli Stempel was defeated by the same 7-6 margin as on budget night.
The cut means that the equivalent of close to six Hamiltons goes in the pocket of the town’s somewhat tax-beleaguered homeowners, and while that may seem like a silly number to some, the implications of this vote could be far greater in terms of the way budgets are created in this town in future years.
This is the first time since the advent of Greenfield’s city form of government that the Town Council has cut a mayor’s budget, the latest manifestation of an austerity kick that began last year when the council also made history with its first-ever reduction of a mayoral capital budget request.
There are two things that make this cut significant. First, it marks a change in philosophy for an arm of government that has traditionally acted more like a rubber stamp for the mayor than an equal player in the budget process, despite having the enumerated power to do so.
In the past few budget cycles, the town has passed recommended mayoral budgets, based largely on department head recommendations, only to get back a snootful of cash after all the bills are paid for the year.
This is called certified “free cash,” which is money left over once all the fiscal year checks are cut. The amount of cash the town receives is largely fluid and based on a lot of factors, but is typically between anywhere between $1 million and $4 million, which the town council usually dropkicks into various savings accounts, while using a portion to “stabilize” the town’s tax rate, which has recently been among the highest in the state.
Taxpayers, meanwhile, see their bills going up, services either static or declining, and the town getting a big fat check at the end of the year. That’s when we start hearing questions about “over-taxation,” and whether Greenfield is really being as frugal as it can with the “our money.”
Enter Council President Brickett Allis and Vice-President Isaac Mass, who decide to “flip the budget script” by reducing the operating spending on the front side, with the promise that departments can come back at the end of the year for a supplemental budget if they need more money.
This way, they argued, the taxpayers get to keep a little more of their own coin without affecting services, allowing the council to back-fill any missing funds once the town’s free cash situation clarifies in the fall.
There are at least six members of the council who clearly feel this approach is shortsighted, and will impact certain departments more than others — especially the schools, which will lose close to an additional $193,000 above the $500,000 the mayor already cut from its original spending request.
Mass’s counter is that the schools are sitting on $400,000 in special education circuit breaker money that they have made the choice to hoard rather than spend, which is an argument I’m sure will carry a lot of weight with childless residents and elderly people on fixed incomes who always vote and could use that extra 60 clams.
And that brings me to the second reason this move is potentially big.
It remains to be seen whether this new model of budgeting will be effective for Greenfield in the long term. In the short term, however, it is great politics for Allis and Mass, who will now be able to say they were the first leadership team in Town Council history to actually give voters a tax break in the mayoral era.
The move also sends a message to current Mayor Bill Martin that, though he may still be Greenfield’s top political dog, this council, at least under its current leadership, has ditched the rubber stamp away and will be full partners in the budget process moving forward.
Of course, said power only exists as long as Allis and Mass hold that slim, one-vote majority on this split-down-the-middle council, a margin I’m quite certain the local Democratic contingent will take solid aim at when fall election season rolls around.
But that is then. For now, Greenfield residents have an extra 60 bucks to spend while town hall tries to do more with less and the political tide continues to churn in a community which, like much of the nation, experiences the living embodiment of the adage “elections have consequences.”
Chris Collins, who worked in local radio in a number of capacities, has observed political life in Franklin County for years. He also is a former Recorder reporter and a Greenfield native.