West Springfield Chief Financial Officer Sharon Wilcox gives a presentation breaking down the fiscal year 2026 budget.
Photo credit: West Side Media
WEST SPRINGFIELD — The West Springfield Town Council hosted a public hearing during its May 19 meeting for its fiscal year 2026 capital and operating budget, which is proposed to be approximately $134 million, a 4.54% or $5.8 million increase from FY25.
West Springfield Chief Financial Officer Sharon Wilcox gave a presentation breaking down the FY26 budget.
The FY26 operating budget is funded by several sources including real estate/personal property tax, state aid, local revenue, MGM surrounding community agreement, free cash/available funds and transfer from enterprise.
New growth or property taxes are projected to increase by 3.68% and state aid is projected to increase by 6.14%.
Mayor William Reichelt said revenue growth continues to support the town’s financial health. The maturing cannabis industry is expected to generate $300,000 in new tax revenue this year, while increased occupancy in local hotels and motels has enhanced returns from tourism-related taxes, reducing reliance on residents to fund core services.
Significant changes for the FY26 operating costs include municipal recurring expenditures are set to increase by 3.92% and the School Department recurring expenditures are set to increase by 4.14%.
At the April 2 School Committee meeting, the committee approved a $58.1 million school budget for FY26, a $1.7 million increase from FY25.
For employee benefits, contributory retirement benefits or pension costs are estimated to increase by 5.58% and health insurance costs are estimated to increase by 10%.
West Springfield debt policy provides that annual debt services shall not exceed 8% of the annual operating budget.
Debt service costs included in the proposed FY26 general fund budget represent 5.2% of the proposed FY26 general fund recurring budget.
Reichelt has requested a transfer of $500,000 to the debt service stabilization fund to build reserves now to offset future debt service increases.
Wilcox discusses the proposed transfer and explained, “We’re well within what our policy dictates. We also know we have big projects coming up, so we are requesting to put $500,000 into the debt service stabilization fund. That will build that fund and fund future costs as we bring those big projects online.”
A couple upcoming projects highlighted include a new police station and a new elementary school.
The budget also includes an appropriation of $250,000 to the OPEB trust fund.
Reichelt discussed the budget process this year, which he mentioned was difficult, but stated West Springfield is not facing significant budget shortfalls or widespread layoffs to absorb rising external costs. The budget includes cutting only five positions from the operating budget.
He said, “The way that a lot of the uncertainty that’s happening federally, at the state level and locally here, this was a more difficult budget this year, but we did reduce, last year we had a projected 5% increase in taxes, we cut that in half this year.”
The tax increase is projected to be 2.5%, which Reichelt said was the lowest projected increase in the past five years.
He further stated, “So it’s part of that post [COVID-19] recovery. It’s not the same as the first six years we had a zero percent increase. I’m pleased that we were able to bring it down to two and a half.”
Town Council President Sean Powers explained that the public hearing will continue until the next meeting on June 2, “in the interest of other constituents or residents that couldn’t make it tonight.”
No discussion or vote was made on the FY26 budget by the Town Council.
The proposed FY26 budget can be found at townofwestspringfield.org.
