Mayor Domenic Sarno officially unveiled Springfield’s $985.7 million fiscal year 2026 budget in front of city department heads on May 8 at City Hall. The City Council officially voted in favor of it during a May 27 meeting.
Reminder Publishing file photo
SPRINGFIELD — After much discussion about property tax relief and revenue generators, the City Council approved Mayor Domenic Sarno’s $985.7 million fiscal year 2026 budget during a special meeting on May 27.
The budget, which constitutes a 6.1% increase from FY25’s, includes zero layoffs and no cuts to services, according to Sarno.
“A testament to our fiscal strength and discipline, the FY26 budget is balanced for the 11th consecutive year without the use of any stabilization funds,” Sarno said. “That’s unheard of when it comes to city management or urban city management.”
City-side budget spending for FY26 comes in at $315 million, making it a 4.7% increase from FY25 while the School Department budget is presented at $671 million, a 6.8% increase from FY25, and representing two-thirds of Springfield’s overall operating budget for the coming year.
The city also maintains nearly $72 million in “rainy day” stabilization reserve funds for FY26, according to Sarno.
Although certain decisions at the federal level — like the recent termination of a $20 million Environmental Protection Agency Grant — are making things difficult for the city, Sarno said the FY26 budget maintains core services that Springfield needs in order to operate.
In his unveiling of the budget on May 8 at City Hall, Sarno said the budget “supports all current programming,” including the continuation of economic development projects, parks upgrades, healthy neighborhood initiatives and public safety programs.
He also shared that veteran’s services will once again be fully funded, and the city will continue to have all of its neighborhood library sites open with expanded hours of operations and more programs.
“We’re going to continue to provide for our residents and our business community, so they make sure that they receive all the core services that we’ve put out before,” Sarno said.
However, adjustments were still made to help mitigate the impact of economic uncertainty at the federal level. In his FY26 budget reveal, Sarno said pension costs rose 9%, or $5.5 million, from FY25. As a result, the city decided to use $2 million of the $19.4 million available in Springfield’s pension reserve fund to offset pension increases for the budget.
“This is not a decision that has been made lightly; however we do believe now is the right time to use this funding source to help balance our budget,” Sarno said.
Aside from that commitment, the city also trimmed what it could in the budget without impacting city services.
Department heads were asked to identify a 3% reduction to their budgets in either the “Other Than Personal Services” category and/or vacant positions, a request Sarno made at the onset of the budget season to combat “potential financial uncertainty” at the federal level.
During the May 27 council meeting, Springfield Chief Administrative and Financial Officer Cathy Buono said that the city eliminated 14 full-time equivalent positions that are currently not filled, and with the help of City Councilor Tim Allen, made adjustments to 30 full-time general fund positions.
According to Buono and Allen, the city budget has the lowest number of full-time equivalent positions since 2013.
“I’m going to continue to work with Councilor Allen and meet with the departments to see, as we restructure the departments, if there’s any more positions that we can cut when they become available,” Buono said, “But at this point, we’re comfortable with those 14 we’ve cut, and we’ll work on the future, any other positions that departments don’t need.”
City Council thoughts
Allen, who chairs the city’s Finance Committee, highlighted the difficulty of making “reasonable cuts” or adjustments to the budget when Springfield does not have a say in a lot of what is increased.
He noted that costs increased by $51 million without the city having a choice, including $2.5 million in school transportation, $5.5 million in pension costs, $3 million in employee benefits and around $40 million in the School Department.
“Things that have to go up, so we’re trying to do what we can to find places where we can reduce or save a little bit of money,” Allen said. “I think we had a pretty good outcome.”
Council members were greatly appreciative of the work done by the city and its finance team to put together the FY26 budget, but the gratitude also came with specific inquiries about school transportation, public safety overtime, property tax relief and ways in which the city can generate more revenue.
As chair of the council’s payment in-lieu of taxes revenue committee, Ward 6 City Councilor Victor Davila said the city should look at ways to “expand the tax growth” by thinking outside of the box and finding ways to bring in more commercial businesses.
He told Sarno that his committee, in an effort to help lower property taxes, is currently working to engage the Collins Center on a Pilot program that helps pay for critical municipal services.
“I hope there’s no obstacle in doing that,” Davila said.
Speaking about the City Council’s role during budget season, At-Large City Councilor Kateri Walsh said it was clear from department head meetings that there were not a lot of areas the council or the city could cut without impacting core city services.
With that in mind, she said she was pleased with how the budget turned out.
“I think there’s a great deal of cooperation and goodwill with the council, with the department heads, with the staff; I think we’ve all worked very well together,” Walsh said. I’m very happy with this budget; that we’re taking care of our veterans; and that our pools and parks will be open.”
The council voted 10-1 in favor of Sarno’s budget.
Two councilors were absent for the vote and At-Large City Councilor Tracye Whitfield was the lone person to vote against the budget after expressing concerns about the fact that property taxes would rise for the 10th year in a row.
“As far as I’m concerned, I made a commitment to myself and the residents of Springfield that if there is a $1 increase in the tax bill, I cannot vote for this budget,” Whitfield said. “I know that is what’s coming to the future.”
The FY26 budget officially goes into effect July 1.
