The Glens Falls City Council has approved a $24 million budget.
The council passed the proposal on a 4-2 vote Tuesday.
It includes a 1.89% increase in the city’s tax levy, totaling less than $240,000, meant to cover increased costs of operation due to inflation and the city’s increased insurance rate.
It carries a less than $27 increase for the average house valued at $210,000.
Speaking with WAMC, Democratic Mayor Bill Collins says the city’s revenues are up across the board.
“But our revenues are up from both state and federal grants, through paving money. Revenues are up. Sales tax in Glens Falls is going strong, it’s up over 11% this year over last year. So, that’s where we’ll handle the majority of the increased costs for the city’s budget,” explained Collins.
The “no” votes came from two Democrats, Diana Palmer of the third ward and Ben Lapham from the fourth ward. Speaking with WAMC, Palmer says she didn’t disagree with any of the pillars of the budget, but wished the council could have stuck to a plan to allow the public to review the budget one more time.
“Unfortunately, the public hearing on the budget that the council had agreed to set to allow time for the public to review and weigh in on the budget before voting at the following council meeting was rushed. So, we had agreed that last night we were going to vote to set a public hearing and then at the following council meeting we would vote on the budget. The public hearing was held and we voted on the budget on the same night which I felt reduced the opportunity for public input,” explained Palmer.
Mayor Collins explained that the council voted on the budget Tuesday on the advice of the city’s controller.
“In our charter it says in one place that ‘we shall pass a budget by December 1st.’ And then it says if we don’t pass it by Decemebr 1st then the tentative budget, which is presented in November, would be the budget until the budget is passed. And our controller said that she felt that we’ve always passed the budget by December 1st, and that if we don’t her opinion was that we may get a negative finding in our annual audit because somewhere in our charter it says December 1st,” said Collins.
The 2024 budget comes after the city recently started construction on a $5 million Event and Market Center funded by a New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant.
Despite the fiscal successes and future developments, a statement by Collins ahead of Tuesday’s hearing highlighted some sacrifices the city has had to make like the elimination of 25 full-time city positions over the past decade.
The budget included an increase in pay for police, sidewalk and road replacements, and public park improvements.
