SPRINGFIELD – Following three meetings last week, the Springfield Budget Committee, which is made up of six council members and six citizens, approved the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 as presented by the city’s finance director, Nathan Bell. The proposed budget will be submitted to the city council for approval in June.

The proposed budget includes a $310,000 cut to the library’s budget, resulting in reduced programs and services and Monday closures. Concerns about funds for the library, deferred maintenance, and fiscal transactions to the ambulance fund were raised, as these were not included in the five-year forecast.

Bell said during the first Budget Committee meeting on May 4 that he anticipates a $350,000 transfer to the ambulance fund in the proposed budget. He also shared that deferred maintenance can total $433 million or more, and that delays can increase future costs and service risks.

Mayor Sean VanGordon questioned how much the last natural disaster cost the city, referencing the 2024 ice storm that swept through Lane County. He said the city depends on reserve funds in those instances.

“The reason I’m bringing this up as we get into this conversation is that there’s a thing that I think about with reserves, which is that those are the funds that we all rely on in the event of some of these emergency response events,” VanGordon said.

Former city councilor and current Springfield Public Schools board member Bob Brew expressed concerns about the proposed budget and the reliance on a suggested shared payroll tax of 0.1% for employers and employees.

“I’m concerned we’re just kicking the can down the road. This does not fix the structural problems that we have,” Brew said. “We put all our eggs into another basket to run this payroll tax, but we know that’s not going to keep up, and it’s not going to solve our current problem, so I’m just concerned that we’re just kicking the can down.”

Committee member Ruth Linoz suggested creative solutions to increase revenue, such as selling city-owned land, reducing city programs, and even closing city buildings; however, her ideas were rejected due to city obligations.

“If we don’t get the decision ahead of contract negotiations and other types of impacts, then it’s ‘we can’t do. We can’t do. We can’t do (it),’ because it’s not aligned well with other key contracts or negotiations, or even certain commitments to projects,” Linoz said.

City manager Nancy Newton confirmed this and said other factors also come into play.

“You have to think about the policymakers and the decisions before them, and then the community at large, and how receptive they would be to try to take a bolder stance,” Newton said. “Or contemplating something that hadn’t been talked about in the city before, and I’m very open to having those conversations, and it’s good to have those conversations in groups like this, in the council, in our community. That’s kind of a balancing act.”

A new member of the forum, Elliott Harwell, questioned the city department finances left and right to better understand the budget.

“I don’t think someone steps out of their house and looks at their crumbling street and goes, ‘thank God the city is being frugal.’ The way people engage with the city and the services that we provide are things like streets, and so to have the feeling that payroll taxes and taxes are going up, but the street in front of your house is still not going to get fixed, it has the opposite effect,” Harwell said.

“It doesn’t create the sense that we are doing good governance. It’s raising the question of what governance are we doing, if we’re paying more? But someone can’t see that in their day-to-day life, and how they engage with the infrastructure of the city, it looks like we’re not doing our job.”

Despite long conversations about deliberations for how to address the city’s budget challenges, no adjustments were officially suggested to change the proposed forecast. When a motion to approve the proposed 2027 budget was entertained, Linoz and Harwell voted no, while all the other committee members voted yes.

The proposed budget will move forward for approval by the city council in June.