Labor unions representing city employees recently received letters from City Hall warning that they could face layoffs this summer due to budget problems. In a Springfield Republican article by Pete Goonan, Lee Erdmann, the city’s chief administrative and financial officer, said that there is a “strong probability that layoffs will be necessary although we are doing all we can to minimize or avoid layoffs including asking the commonwealth for additional assistance.”
This evening, the Sarno administration will present some of its ideas for closing the budget gap to the City Council. At the meeting—to be held at 5:30 in the City Council Chambers, prior to the Council’s regular meeting—city finance officials will offer recommendations for generating new revenue for the city.
Those ideas apparently may include revisiting the much-debated, widely despised and oh-so-politically charged issue of the municipal trash fee; as a media advisory from the mayor’s office puts it, rather ominously, the meeting will include a presentation “on the future of the trash fee.”
It’s unclear whether councilors will be invited tonight to chime in with their own ideas for generating revenue and saving money, although veteran at-large Councilor Tim Rooke, chair of the Council’s Finance Committee, told the Advocate he’s got some ideas, starting with one he’s been pushing for several years: putting the city’s health insurance plan out for competitive bids.
The insurance plan for employees and retirees eats up a major part of Springfield’s budget, costing more than $82 million a year, three-quarters of which is picked up by the city. Mayor Domenic Sarno has, so far, not taken Rooke up on the suggestion to put the program out to bid.
