Council to Hold First Budget Workshop Wednesday

Summit's Common Council will hold the first if its budget workshop meetings Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

In a year when money from the state is expected to be less than in years past, common council members have already expressed the difficulty they will have in balancing the 2010 budget.

At previous meetings, former council president Ellen Dickson expressed concern over the need for drastic service cuts given the fiscal constraints the city will be under.

Councilman Tom Getzendanner is also concerned.

A member of the finance committee for the first time in his tenure, Getzendanner is calling for a reduction in staffing.

"We have wonderful public employees, but they get paid better than anybody in the country in similar positions," Getzendanner said in a press release. "We simply cannot afford such a large payroll any longer."  

Budget workshops are unlike regular council meetings. For one thing they are held in the Janet Whitman Community Room and no votes will be cast Wednesday.

Getzendanner said residents can expect some councilmembers to begin taking issue with individual budget line items while some, like himself, he says will look at the overall budget first.

"It's time to look at what we get from local government, instead of what we're paying to local government, asking ourselves how these social benefits fit with other things in our pocketbook," he said in the release.

While he didn't specifically say where he thought the cuts should come, he hinted that some ideas he will reveal Wednesday. He also hinted that perhaps the pending retirement of Springfield's Police Chief could open up possibilities for sharing administrative costs.