GREENFIELD — Whether drastic cuts will be made to the proposed budget will be decided later this week.
The City Council is set to vote on Mayor William Martin’s budget Wednesday, which includes money for the addition of two school resource officers and a $101,000 error.
Martin’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year beginning July 1 totals $48,810,304, which is increased by 1.34 percent from the current budget of $47,084,970.
Martin has submitted an amended budget, though, that would remove the $101,000 put into the budget in error. The amended budget would total $48,709,304 and would be a 1.13 percent increase from this year’s budget.
Within the proposed budget, Greenfield public schools would see a 0.95 percent increase in funding to about $18.18 million, which is significantly less than the 5.5 percent increase the School Committee requested.
The School Committee has requested an additional $400,000 from the council to make up for the limited budget increase. The council could acquiesce to the request by either increasing the budget and giving schools the money or by taking money from other departments and putting that amount into the school department budget.
If the council were to increase the amount in the city budget, then the total could not go beyond a 2.5 percent increase from this year’s budget, also known as Proposition 2½. The School Committee also has to request the amount and two-thirds of City Council must approve the money.
Councilors Isaac Mass and Brickett Allis also suggested several cuts to the budget, which could reduce the entire amount by 1 percent. The cuts include taking out money for the two new school resource officers and salary reductions due to retirements and other city employee replacements.
The cuts are expected to be debated before the full council votes on the budget Wednesday. The meeting begins at 6 p.m., at 393 Main St., GCTV.
You can reach
Dan Desrochers at:
ddesrochers@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 257