Westfield Mayor Scott Willis said he plans a reorganization of the city’s spending habits, starting with a budget that eliminates unappropriated dollars.

Willis told residents at a town hall meeting at Westfield Washington Public Library last month that spending in 2025 will account for all revenues coming into the city.

“You have to spend a lot of time thinking about how you’re spending the taxpayers’ dollars,” Willis said. “We’re already starting to train our staff and implement a zero-based budget for 2025. When that happens, every dollar being spent — every dollar that comes into the City of Westfield — will be budgeted. Some will go to spending on roads and infrastructure, some will go to salaries, some will go to the rainy-day fund. But we will not have unappropriated dollars.”

Zero-based budgeting is when revenues minus expenditures equal zero. In other words, the city allocates an expense for each dollar received, even if the allocation is for savings. Willis said since Westfield changed municipal status from a town to a city, it has built a significant amount of unappropriated dollars and cash reserves. The mayor said the current budget left roughly $14 million in unappropriated funds.

“I think, at the time, the city and the council didn’t understand how municipal finance works. They cut the budget (but) the money is still coming in, building up these huge cash reserves,” Willis said. “That’s not what we want to do; we don’t want to be sitting on your money. We need to be spending it, investing it in the community, or finding ways to give it back to you.”

Willis said having too much cash on hand without allocating it for a specific reason could affect how much revenue the city can get in the future. He said a zero-based budget will mandate a fresh evaluation every year.

“We’re going to spend money in a way that aligns with the vision of the city long term,” Willis said. “Growth, infrastructure, those kinds of things are going to be heavily invested in to improve the life that we all experience here in Westfield. This will make us more efficient and more responsible with the dollars that we are collecting from (the taxpayers).”

Willis said staff are in the process of creating the 2025 budget, which will be introduced to the Westfield City Council by September. A public hearing will take place before passage. The budget must be adopted by Nov. 1.