NORTHAMPTON — Next fiscal year will bring several significant developments for the city, including the creation of a new climate action department, the opening of a new Resilience Hub, a proposal to hire student officers to address a staffing shortage in the Police Department, and a dramatic increase in water and sewer rates thanks to the pending closure of the Coca-Cola bottling plant.
Additionally, city and school officials say they will continue to press the state to provide more aid for education after the city had to use $1.2 million in emergency funding to prevent school budget cuts for next year.
Those are just a few of the highlights included in the fiscal 2024 budget Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra unveiled to the City Council Thursday night. The $132.3 million proposed budget, which represents a 4.7% increase from the current year’s budget, includes a $116.6 million general fund. Nearly 65% percent of the general fund revenues are drawn from local property taxes.
In addition to the general fund, the budget also includes $15.6 million allocated from the city’s four enterprise funds — water, sewer, solid waste and stormwater and flood control.
Though she acknowledges the challenges facing the city and nation during a time of “uncertainty and change” with the ending of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the mayor sounded an encouraging tone.
“As we approach the upcoming fiscal year, we have reason to be hopeful for the future of our city,” Sciarra said in her message to the council. “We have ambitious plans and a strong drive towards progress and long-term success. At the same time, we must also address the financial hurdles and carefully plan our resources.”
In addition to the launching of a new Climate Action and Project Administration department, the new budget year that starts on July 1 will include a ramping up of the Division of Community Care. Both initiatives seek to provide needs to the community on climate change and mental health response, respectively.
Created by the city last February, the goal of the climate action department is to combine strategic planning for the city’s sustainability and climate change goals, oversee and manage projects and add a sustainability focus to resource procurement. In other words, it will help ensure those projects meet climate and sustainability goals put forth by the city. Among those goals are a 2030 target for carbon neutrality for city operations and a 2050 target for net-zero carbon emissions citywide.
The new department will be staffed by three people — a director, an energy and sustainability officer position shifting over from the Central Services Department and the chief procurement officer from the Auditor’s Office.
Formally established last year, the Division of Community Care will provide multiple types of civilian responders to community needs as an alternative to a traditional public safety response. The division falls under the city’s Health and Human Services Department, and was created as part of a push to provide an alternative to police response in the instance of mental health-related emergencies.
Once fully formed, the DCC is expected to be headquartered at the planned Community Resiliency Hub, a multipurpose community center at the former First Baptist Church designed to, among other things, provide shelter for vulnerable populations during climate emergencies and support the needs of the city’s homeless population.
Sciarra noted that such creations were in response to public demand for the city to take action regarding these issues in lieu of the state or federal governments.
“While less and less of our tax dollars return to Northampton from the state and federal governments, Northampton residents need and ask for more than ever from our city,” she stated. “People have grown increasingly frustrated with their ability to impact the national and regional political landscape.”
Sciarra also noted that the city is still recovering from the effects of the “Great Resignation” — the national phenomenon in which some 50 million people quit their jobs to take new positions in 2022 — and working to restore staffing to regular levels. The issue is particularly pronounced in the city’s emergency responders, with Fire Rescue having its busiest year on record and the Police Department losing 49 officers over the past five years.
To address the shortage of police officers, Sciarra said she would allow the Police Department to hire student officers to fill expected and unexpected vacant positions which occur as a result of retirements and increased officer turnover, giving the department the ability to hire and train new permanent officers to fill those positions, a process that Sciarra said often takes 18 months to complete.
“What it allows for is for flexibility to start the hiring process,” Sciarra told the council. “It is an incredibly long process, and we’re somewhat dependent on the state and when they’re going to run an academy.”
The mayor’s budget message noted that the NPD averages a shortage of 21% of its patrol officers every month, and that every month last year ranged between 30 to as high as 77 calls a month in which there was no officer to respond to.
“There is a very significant financial impact of this shortage on the city and taxpayers. From July 2022 to September 2022, the [police] department averaged 431 hours of overtime per month, paid at time and a half just to maintain minimum patrol coverage,” she said. “To budget for that level of overtime in FY2024, the overtime line would need to be doubled to $456,098.”
City residents and businesses are also set to see a more than 200% increase this year over base water rates as well as pay new sewer rates, a move the city says is necessary due to the planned departure of the Coca-Cola bottling plant at the end of 2023. The plant accounts for 25% of the city’s enterprise fund for water and sewer services.
Combined, an average homeowner will pay either $244 or $337 more next fiscal year in the base rates for water and sewer service, depending on the size of their water pipe.
The largest single expenditure increase for this year’s budget went to the Northampton Public Schools, which will get an extra $1.4 million added to its $36.5 million budget for the fiscal year, an increase of about 4%. An additional $1.2 million will be appropriated to the school district from the city’s Fiscal Stability Stabilization Fund to prevent staff cuts.
In her message to the council, Sciarra continued to press the issue of the state providing more funding through its Chapter 70 aid program in order to fix the issue of school funding in the district. City and school officials have argued that the current formula disadvantages Northampton.
The school district will also welcome a new superintendent in July, Portia Bonner, who will be tasked with coming up with a plan for additional spending reductions for fiscal 2025 with a December deadline, earlier in the annual budget process than usual.
“Northampton’s Chapter 70 state aid has remained stagnant for over 20 years while required Net School Spending (NSS) has steadily increased,” Sciarra said. “It will be challenging, but I look forward to working closely with Dr. Bonner and the School Committee on this plan to return to the consistent and reliable funding.”
With the budget now presented to the City Council, it will now be sent to the council’s Committee on Finance for more discussion before being sent back to the council for a vote. The committee plans Tuesday and Wednesday.
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.
