The council is being asked to transfer $422,591 from its undesignated fund into the general fund to pay for all the costs incurred in fiscal 2011.
NORTHAMPTON – The City Council plans do its annual financial house-keeping— nearly $.5 million worth— when it meets on Thursday.
The council is being asked to transfer $422,591 from its undesignated fund into the general fund to pay for all the costs incurred in fiscal 2011. According to Finance Director Christopher B. Pile, the figure is not unusually high.
“It’s par for the course,” Pile said.
The money transfers are necessary because it is virtually impossible to calculate exactly the expenses for the coming fiscal year when the budget is being formulated in the spring. One of the major expenses this year is $237,544 that the city promised the police union to pay for the state’s share of the Quinn Bill. That bill offered police officers financial incentive to further their training and education, but the state cut the benefit in fiscal 2010. During contract negotiations with the police union that year, the city agreed to continue paying its fifty percent share of the Quinn funding. Last year, in fiscal 2011, the city said it will also fund the state’s share of the Quinn Bill money. In exchange, police will go two years without a cost of living increase.
Pile said the city must also come up with additional money for salaries in other departments because the Massachusetts Department of Revenue has ordered municipalities to fund some of the payroll for the first week in July, 2011, from the previous year’s budget, even tough the new fiscal year begins on July 1.
Other costs are by their nature a moving target. For example, the city’s Veterans Agent comes to the council for additional funding during the year on an as-needed basis. In part because Northampton has a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, there is a fluctuating population of veterans in the city.
Pile said the city also incurred an unanticipated $143,700 in interest on a loan to fund energy upgrades in municipal buildings. City officials believe savings in energy costs will pay for the $6.5 million project over time.
Although Pile normally seeks the transfers in May, he is submitting them early this year because he is retiring at the end of April.