Plattsburgh City Councilors received the mayor’s proposed budget in October and must finalize the fiscal plan by mid-January. The six-member board is still considering amendments as they try to lower a tax levy that at one point looked like it could be as high as 22 percent. WAMC’s North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley was at the last meeting of 2016 last night.
Plattsburgh City Councilors spent most of their work session and regular meeting Wednesday evening reviewing amendments to the proposed 2017 budget.
Outgoing Mayor James Calnon reviewed amendments to health care, fire payroll, cleaning services, city historian payroll and a new traffic violations officer.
Confusion over the proposals appeared evident as Ward 1 Democrat Rachelle Armstrong began reviewing the healthcare amendments. “I don’t know if many people have received this breakdown of the proposals.”
Calnon: “Well, mine have been out there for a week or so and I’ve been, what happened today has not been published because in fact there’s at least you know one question that wasn’t resolved until the work session tonight, so.”
Ward 4 Democrat Paul O’Connell: “I’d like to make a comment. It’s been talked about in the last three weeks, hasn’t it?”
Calnon: “Um hum.”
Becky Kasper: “We’ve talked about it at three budget sessions.”
O’Connell: “So the only ones that are new are the ones that I got today maybe an hour and a half ago."
Calnon: “They’re not actually new items.”
O’Connell: “Because we’ve talked about it.”
Calnon: “They’re newly specified.”
O’Connell: “Exactly.”
Armstrong offered an amendment calling for $95,000 in reductions to the police department equivalent to three vacant positions. Ward 5 Democrat Becky Kasper raised a point of order. “These are significant amendments now. I really am very uncomfortable about pushing this to a vote right now considering that they have gone through so many iterations. And frankly, personally, and also given the issue of transparency I would prefer to wait to have these amendments clarified. And we’re looking at an email rather than taking the time to say okay this is exactly what this amendment is and this is exactly what it entails.”
A number of city residents stepped up to comment on the budget process. They are not happy with the work that councilors have been doing and their inability to keep the budget under or near the state-mandated cap of 1.5 percent. Jeff Moore was among the critics. “I would once again urge you people to meet the tax cap. The city has a spending problem not a revenue problem. You need to live within your means. And I’m tired of hearing these bait and switch things where ‘Oh we’re going to have to raise the tax levy 22 percent. But oh wait a minute we’re going to do a great job. We’re going to lower it down to eight.’ I could balance this budget in 5 minutes. Come on. You haven’t done a good job up to now and it’s time to step up to the plate and do your jobs.”
“Sue Morse, city resident. The taxpayers are max’ed out and sick and tired of bailing out bumbling administrations who refuse year after year to be fiscally responsible. Stop threatening the taxpayers with huge tax increases.”
Resident Bob Smith on the other hand offered budget reduction suggestions such as privatizing trash and snow removal and reducing street sweeping for the councilors to consider. “These suggestions are meant to show the seriousness of our spending routine with an income that is no longer robust enough to support our spending habits. This needs to be evaluated and decided upon for the public good and any short-term inconvenience needs a good faith effort to minimize such inconvenience.”
At the end of the meeting Councilor Armstrong addressed concerns of the taxpayers that the city is moving toward a double-digit tax increase. She says the idea of raising taxes 22 percent was considered only if they kept spending at current levels. “This has been an exercise in trying to reconcile what the costs were with what we needed to do if we wanted to maintain services exactly as they are and build in a cushion for contingencies. We’re coming down to the nitty gritty with some very serious thought toward cutting costs.”
The Plattsburgh city budget must be finalized by January 14th.
