SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — As cities across Oregon grapple with tightening budgets and long-standing structural challenges, Springfield is proposing more than $3 million in cuts for the upcoming fiscal year—but city leaders say the plan is designed to shield residents from the harshest impacts.
City Manager Nancy Newton says most of the reductions come from behind-the-scenes efficiencies and unfilled vacancies, not front-line services. Notably, the budget spares all police officer positions and avoids reducing library hours, despite the proposed elimination of a vacant library technician role. Cuts to fire station coverage would only occur during non-peak hours.
“Springfield has been making reductions for many, many years,” Newton said. “We’ve run extremely lean in our staffing, so it’s had a smoothing effect over time. You don’t see as many large reductions at once because we’ve been doing them all along.”…