Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy has vetoed the 2024 budget plan which the city council passed almost three weeks late.
McCarthy, elected to a fourth term earlier this month, contends the council’s review process was flawed and criticized the body for removing a trash collection fee hike and cutting public safety funds. The council approved the $110 million plan by a 4-3 vote on November 20th. McCarthy had proposed a $111 million plan.
"I'm happy that he vetoed the budget," said Councilor Doreen Ditoro, who added the panel needs to meet soon. "Even though it's the holiday season, I think it's important to get back to the table"
In a letter to Council President Marion Porterfield, a fellow Democrat, McCarthy says he looks forward to reviewing options that will produce a fair and balanced budget. McCarthy spoke with WAMC a day after sending the letter.
"The areas of concern I have is making sure that we have enough revenue coming in to support the debt service in the daily operations of our water and sewer, and garbage collection," said McCarthy. "The council has been hesitant to address the allocation of some of those costs. And they move money around out of police fire, code enforcement, other areas, as opposed to addressing the fundamental issues within those specific line items. And so it becomes hard for me to manage it going forward where I've encouraged, not encouraged, it's required department heads to provide fair and accurate budget numbers. And then we pull money out of police or fire to pay for garbage collection. It's just not fair. I got to have those allocations in so that they reflect accurately assess to, whether they're revenue lines or expense lines."
Porterfield was not available for comment. When the budget passed, she said she didn't feel like the council got everything they wanted.
"But I'm satisfied with the final product, I believe we can move forward. And in addition to that, because of what's been predicted, I have proposed that we meet quarterly to make sure that as we proceed through this budget, that we're staying on task, that our spending is in line, that, you know, if we have to make any adjustments, that we do them in a timely manner," Porterfield said.
Porterfield lost to McCarthy in this year’s Democratic primary.
Carmel Patrick is one of three councilors who voted against the budget.
"If the council has five votes, they could override the veto. But I don't think that that will happen. There were three of us that voted no, on the budget that the majority of the council put forth. And I can't imagine that anyone would be changing their vote to override the veto," said Patrick.
Patrick says councilors may find some wiggle room for negotiation.
"There are a few positions that we had, that the council's budget recommended to minor increases to a few of our staff members' salaries. And I would still support those. There was an addition, an additional amount of money to our senior meal program, and I certainly would support that. There were, otherwise there were some staff positions that were cut that I would like to see restored. Obviously, throughout the entire budget process, I remained firm in my commitment to the police and fire overtime budget. So I would like to see that restored to the level in the recommendation, and as well as the three C's increasing the waste, sewer and water fees," Patrick said.
Patrick cautions if councilors don't move forward with increasing those fees there could be a tax hike next year. Again, McCarthy:
"Not next Monday, but a week from Monday, the resolution goes back to the city council. And it requires an up or down vote so that they either vote to override my veto, or if the votes aren't there, it would sustain the veto. And then after that, to come back and again, depending on what the outcome is, to look to resolve the issues in the immediate days after that," McCarthy said, adding this year's budget process has been very trying.
"The scheduling meetings, the review the decision making process, it's not one that I believe is results oriented and again, it's just frustrating," McCarthy said.
