The Schenectady City Council has passed Mayor Gary McCarthy's 2025 budget proposal, averting the type of standoff that nearly led to a government shutdown last year.
Councilors voted 5 to 2 Monday to approve the $116.7 million spending plan that carries a 3% property tax hike and a $52 a year hike in the trash fee.
Damonni Farley and Doreen Ditoro voted "no." Farley said he cannot support a budget where the youth services line is less than 1% of the total.
"We should at minimal, double that, that budget line, and we did have a lot of support in order to do it. And some of the council members were saying that they support the increase in youth support, however, would just like to see it funded through a different, different funding stream, through some of the ARPA money," said Farley.
The city has yet to determine how much of the $52 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding it originally received will be available for use.
Democratic Council President Marion Porterfield says "no budget process is perfect."
"It takes time and effort. It takes people trying to see things from other people's viewpoints. As I always like to say, how you see it depends on where you sit. So overall, it's, like I said, it's not a perfect budget, but we do... We're going, you know, we were having a deficit. That's just a frank way of saying that. And so I think that this council, the majority of this council, work together to put forward and pass a budget that will, you know, keep our city moving forward. And I know that no one wants a tax increase, but sometimes especially with the cost of things going up, that is what happened," said Porterfield.
Councilor Carl Williams agrees. "There's never a perfect budget, but very much this was one in which there were a number of consolations or compromises, and I'm confident in the budget that we proposed to the city. There are still some ongoing items regarding the responsiveness to ongoing increases to trash, specifically, and how we've received a number of emails regarding that. And I'd like to highlight to anyone that's watching or has been passively listening, those discussions are still continuing, so continue to share your thoughts and opinions on the matter," Williams said.
The council also approved a raise for McCarthy, a fourth-term Democrat, boosting his annual pay by 18%. The budget was sent to him for review.
There won't be a repeat of last year's weeks-long standoff between the council and the mayor that threatened to shut down city government.
That plan was subject to months of debate and vetoed twice by McCarthy prior to the all-Democrat city council voting 4 to 3 to pass the nearly $110 million budget in an 11th-hour special meeting. McCarthy immediately signed that budget bill.
City Council finance chair Councilman John Mootooveren is hopeful this year's financial plan will be in place quickly. "We all should be proud of ourselves that we have turned the page and we're decided to move forward in a positive direction, all of us, and to work for the taxpayer, for the city of Schenectady," Mootooveren said.
McCarthy was not available for comment.
