Councilor Rayo Discusses the City of Syracuse’s ‘10-’11 Budget
Transcript below.
What happens before the city budget reaches the Common Council?
So what happens before the budget reaches the Council? First, all the different departments in the city make their budget requests to the Mayor. Then the Mayor proposes her own budget based on those requests and whatever changes that she decides to make. It’s important to remember that the School District makes up 56% of the total budget and the School Board took a vote on their budget earlier this year.
What is included in the School District’s budget proposal?
The School Board’s budget includes the elimination of more than 200 positions and it has a request for $1.3 million more in a property tax increase. This is a budget that passed the School Board unanimously with the support of the Superintendent.
What is included in Mayor Miner’s budget proposal?
The next step in the process is for the Mayor to propose her own budget and that budget included an increase in water rates, no growth in expenditures, use of some surplus money, some reduction in overtime, and a reduction in budgeted positions, mostly in police and fire. It also included a more than 6% increase in property taxes. That 6% is reflective of the combined rate of the School District tax and the City tax. Because the Mayor denied the request from the School District for a $1.3 million increase in property taxes, that 6% increase would to right to the city’s general fund and the School District wouldn’t see any of that money.
What does the Common Council do with the budget?
After the Mayor proposes her budget, it moves to the Common Council. What we do on the Council is hold budget hearings with all the different city departments and at the end of that process – before we vote on the budget – the Council proposes amendments to the budget.
What amendments were proposed for this year’s budget?
On the subject of amendments, there were two groups of amendments. The first group of amendments would take $650,000 out of the city workers’ health care fund and move it to Say Yes to Education. That would bring the commitment from the city to Say Yes to Education to about $1 million. In the second group of amendments, you’d see a reduction in the overall overtime budget; you’d see an increase in water rates over what the Mayor had proposed; you’d see the elimination of the property tax increase and you’d see another $1 million committed to Say Yes to Education, for a total of $1.35 million, which would be more than in the first set of amendments.
Which amendments did you support?
I was a co-sponsor of the second group of amendments and I supported these amendments for three major reasons. First of all, our amendments reduced the overall overtime budget for the City of Syracuse. Second, we increase the level of funding from the City to Say Yes to Education program. Number three: Our amendments eliminated the property tax increase that was proposed by the Mayor.
How did you vote on the budget?
Unfortunately, in my opinion, the group of amendments that I was supporting was not added to the budget and the first group of amendments was adopted. (That was the $650,000 increase to Say Yes to Education. Without my amendments, I voted against the budget because I think it’s unconscionable that we’re raising property taxes in the middle of this economic downturn on the very people who we want to keep in the City. Again, I voted against the budget and I feel pretty comfortable with that decision. Ultimately, the budget did pass and the Mayor’s budget has been adopted with those minor changes from the Council.
Tags: budget
