Northampton mayor outlines $11.66 million free-cash certification and urges one-time uses

Mayor Jennison (Mayor Sherra) told the City Council on Dec. 19 that the state certified $11.66 million in free cash for Northampton, and she urged following state best-practice guidance to reserve free cash for one-time expenditures such as capital projects or replenishing reserves.

Sherra said $6.83 million of the certification was newly generated free cash in fiscal 2024, of which $5.55 million came from higher-than-projected revenues and $1.28 million from unspent departmental budget lines. She also said the certification included $1.68 million carried over from the prior year and $3.15 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) lost-revenue funds that the city has identified for infrastructure uses.

"The Massachusetts Department of Revenue certifies each municipality's free cash annually," Sherra said, adding the state's technical assistance bureau recommends treating free cash as a recurring, non-recurring revenue source and restricting it to one-time expenditures. She told the council that, because the road-safety project for Northampton High School has moved from design to a construction phase, it has been included in the city's proposed FY26'FY30 capital improvement program.

Resident Al Simon urged the council to be transparent about prior commitments he said were communicated informally and asked why any purported designation of $4.8 million for school roadway improvements had not been formally appropriated and placed before the council. Mayor Sherra responded by outlining the certification components and explained that while ARPA funds appear in the certified total, they were identified for infrastructure and would be spent according to those constraints.

City staff and councilors agreed to take up a fuller, formal discussion of free-cash allocation, the capital-improvement program and potential appropriations at the Council's Jan. 2 meeting.