Westfield's New Tax Bills Just Hit Mailboxes. Here's What's In Them.

Westfield's second quarter property tax bills went out October 1 and are due November 2. They reflect the budget the City Council passed in June, and that budget reached into residents' pockets three different ways.

It raised property taxes 6.5 percent.

It raised the trash fee, so households pay more there, too.

And because even that wasn't enough to keep services running at their current level, the city also dipped into its reserve taxing room, the gap between what Westfield taxes now and the maximum state law allows. Past administrations left that room alone on purpose to keep bills lower. Mayor McCabe said the city had to use room "created by not fully taxing folks over the years." Once it's spent, it's gone, and next year's budget starts with less cushion.

McCabe points to state mandates, health insurance costs, and school budgets as the drivers, and the council's finance chair called it the hardest budget of his tenure. It passed 10 to 1.

One more thing happened the same week those bills went out. On October 2, the city dedicated Whip City Stadium, a new, $11 million athletic complex at Westfield High School, paid for by the city-owned utility out of its fiber internet profits. Officials stress that no tax dollars are involved, but the utility belongs to its ratepayers, the debt is a city bond, and the utility's own general manager said that same money could have lowered customers' internet bills by about $2 a month instead. Nobody voted on that tradeoff.

So: a 6.5 percent tax hike, a higher trash fee, a spent-down cushion, and an $11 million stadium built with public money, all in one year, and most residents are just finding out now.

You shouldn't need to attend every council meeting to know where your money is going.