Springfield Budget Hearing Tonight

When talking about this year's municipal budget, Springfield's township administrator Anthony Cancro and Treasurer Michael Quick say that if it can be cut, it has been cut. They say that they've moved beyond the tactics common to austerity budgeting and come up with cost saving solutions that might be more familiar to dollar-stretching families than municipal governments.

Springfield's government workers, they say, have been cleaning their own offices and taking out their own trash. Quick makes a point to turn off both the lights and air conditioning when he leaves the building. Staples coupons supplemented office supply purchases.

"We're beyond the point of saving on paperclips and pens," Cancro said.

The budget Springfield introduces tonight includes a small property decrease, with the average property owner, one whose home has an assessed value of $175,000 (the assessment value is lower than the purchase price of a home; it's about 33 to 36 percent of the price the home sells for) saving about $80. The decrease comes in the face of rising costs on several fronts, including healthcare and pension payments and a considerable loss of state aid.

Springfield residents will still have to pay, though: the Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority will no longer be part of the property tax bill. The town will charge residents for it as a separate utility, with each business, home, nonprofit group and religious institution in town responsible for a $250 minimum annual fee for use of up to up to 48,000 gallons.

(Cancro said that the $20 taken out of the average property tax bill with the removal of the RVSA fee and the $80 property tax savings, residents will pay $150 more than previously.)

But Cancro and Quick said town's frugality had an impact on the budget as well, with about $1 million trimmed from expenses.

There are a couple of cuts that are off the table. The budget doesn't call for layoffs or furloughs. Cancro and Quick they've said cutting jobs doesn't make sense.

"There's nothing to cut here," Cranco said. "There's no fat."

Springfield is a small town; many municipal offices employ only one person, which means laying them off is impossible and furloughs are more likely to be a burden than a solution (the work, Quick and Cancro pointed out, still has to get done). Quick cited a recent experiment in Newark where 57 employees were furloughed for a total savings of $2,000.

"If we start in with layoffs or furloughs, we have to start at the bottom," Quick said. The result, Quick and Cancro, is that they lay off a lower-paid newly hired employee whose work is covered by a higher paid veteran employee drawing overtime.

"By the end of the fourth month, you're paying more in overtime than you would be in salary," Quick said.

Similarly, laying off junior employees would have little impact on the factors driving up the towns' expenses the most, like pension payments and health insurance. Last year, the township deferred pension payments, and this year are responsible for the $765,000 in deferred payments. Insurance rates have gone up 22 percent due to a spike in claims (Cancro said increases are usually about 14 percent).

The township lost about $450,000 in state aid this year. In addition, the town's resources were drained by two snowstorms, which cost Springfield $40,000 each.

Click here for a snapshot of the town's budget created by the Township Committee.