Springfield edges toward fiscal abyss

Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in Tuesday's City & Region section about Springfield's financial woes used incomplete data for a 2004 population estimate. The US Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 152,091, nearly the same as the 2000 Census, but down nearly 5,000 people since 1990.

SPRINGFIELD -- Eighteen months after Governor Mitt Romney signed a bailout package to rescue this city, Springfield is teetering close to the edge of bankruptcy, with new estimates that municipal debt could grow to $100 million within six years.

The financial picture worsened last month when a judge ordered Springfield to fund increases for teachers' salaries, which had been frozen in 2003 to avoid layoffs. Officials are now anxiously awaiting the judge's decision on how much back pay the city owes.

If city police and fire unions prevail in similar court challenges, and if the city is also required to pay back wages from more recent years, the debt could climb to $100 million, said Alan LeBovidge, commissioner of the state Department of Revenue and chairman of Springfield Finance Control Board, which was formed to oversee the city's troubled finances.

The situation in the state's third-largest city is bleak. And the bitter blame game among state, city, and union offiicials is casting a pall over Springfield, which has struggled for decades since losing its industrial base. While officials dread the specter of receivership or bankruptcy, some residents are beginning to embrace the prospect, if only to write a decisive ending to this difficult civic drama.

''Just get it over with," said Casey Sorrell, 23, a forklift operator who is frustrated with the current climate and considering leaving. ''To know your city is going broke -- it's time to move out of here. There's no opportunity here."

The battle has become intensely charged as Romney, who created the control board and appointed three members to it, mulls a run for president.

Labor leaders in Springfield suspect the Republican governor is exploiting their city's crisis to impose radical conservative changes they say undermine workers' rights. And they contend that Democratic legislative leaders are content to have Springfield be Romney's problem.

''These political leaders have starved this city into this situation, so they could put forward their Draconian agenda," said Timothy Collins, the president of the Springfield Education Association. ''And the leadership in the Legislature is letting the city falter because they want to give Romney a black eye as he runs for president."

The Romney administration intends this week to develop cost-cutting and revenue-boosting options for the city and submit them to the Legislature. Among the ideas, LeBovidge said, are charging fees for trash disposal; asking nonprofit, nontaxable institutions for payments in lieu of taxes; closing libraries; selling golf courses; and transferring Springfield employees onto the state employees' healthcare plan.

Romney is not yet willing to agree to receivership or bankruptcy, said Secretary Thomas Trimarco of the state's Executive Office for Administration and Finance.

''That's failure, and none of us are involved in this problem to admit to failure," Trimarco said.

The control board is even talking about disbanding Springfield's City Council and School Committee to streamline the control board's decision-making, said LeBovidge, a step the city's mayor says would be highly unpopular.

But none of the alternatives would tackle the entire problem. Wiping out the huge projected debt would require massive layoffs, which would cripple the struggling city, officials say. Timothy Rooke, a city councilor who served a term on the control board last year, estimates that the worst-case scenario in court judgments would require ''apocalyptic" layoffs of 450 teachers and 850 city employees. The city has an estimated 2,500 teachers and 1,620 employees.

Mayor Charles V. Ryan is making a last-ditch appeal to the Legislature, contending that his city needs at least $20 million more from the state annually to survive. Ryan says the control board has done what it could but needs the state's help to finish the job.

Yet spokeswomen for the House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Senate President Robert E. Travaglini said last week that Springfield's request for more money is a nonstarter; legislative leaders believe that providing more money would set a bad precedent for other cities in dire financial straits. Springfield has tapped roughly half of the $52 million loan the state approved in 2004. But as 2005 drew to a close, the state halted payments because the latest debt projections made it clear the city would have no hope of meeting its obligations for repayment on time, Trimarco said.

Others question why the control board -- launched by the governor, known for his acumen in turning around businesses and as head of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics -- has been unable to rein in the financial problem.

''We're trying to get to the bottom of that right now," said state Senator Stephen J. Buoniconti, a Democrat who represents parts of Springfield.

He noted that the control board initially focused its efforts on taking on labor unions and trying to rewrite contract provisions, including what he called a ''radical proposal" to tie teachers' raises to their performance; that effort has been bogged down in difficult contract negotiations. Labor leaders reacted angrily to the board's efforts, saying the Romney administration was pouncing on Springfield's problems to experiment with union-busting efforts.

Such suspicions and charges have only increased the animus between the unions and politicians over the cause of the city's problems -- and the potential cures. Teachers have been working without a contract for two years and sued to force the city to pay for contractual salary increases that they say were illegally halted so that the city could cut costs. They blame the city's continuing problems on the intransigence of Romney's appointees on the control board and the Legislature.

But some in local politics say that Springfield had for years been living beyond its means, dishing out contracts that its tax base could not support. ''Unfortunately, with the elected officials in place, some of them lack the leadership and strength to let people know what we can and cannot afford," Rooke said. ''I think everyone wants to be everyone's best friend."

In lieu of a massive bailout, city officials are beseeching legislators to pour more money into existing programs. A state-mandated school busing program, for instance, was once supported with state funds, which locals would like revived. Buoniconti is proposing a ''distressed cities fund" and more money for fixing potholes.

But that won't save the city from its long-term problems -- which some blame on enduring poverty, not mismanagement. The real estate boom of Eastern Massachusetts never reached this city 89 miles west of Boston, where the per capita crime rate far exceeds Boston's. Between the 1990 Census and the 2004 Census update, Springfield's population declined from 157,000 to an estimated 144,000, while the proportion of individuals living in poverty rose from 20 percent to 27 percent.

Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at ebbert@globe.com.