The Schenectady city budget stalemate appears to be headed toward another veto.
There's a revised spending plan on the table for Mayor Gary McCarthy's consideration.
Last week the city council crafted a new $109 million dollar budget to present to the Democrat after he vetoed the council's first offer last month. The plan was supposed to be approved by November 1st. The council met again Monday but did not discuss the spending plan.
McCarthy had originally proposed a $111 million dollar package, held up for weeks of special meetings due to disagreements over police and fire overtime funding along with trash, water and sewer fee increases. The council removed the trash collection fee hike, and opted to cut the public safety funds. The council approved its first $110 million plan by a 4-3 vote on November 20th, which McCarthy, recently elected to a fourth term, promptly vetoed.
Councilor Doreen Ditoro says it's become a waiting game. "So if the mayor decides to veto the budget, then a meeting would, could be held this coming Monday. A special meeting always has to be held, first of all, to try to do a supermajority override. And what happened last time, when President Porterfield called a meeting, a special meeting, a new budget was presented, the one that I'm again hoping that Mayor McCarthy vetoes this week. So that would happen again, a special meeting would be called and we'd gather and try to try to work on a budget,” said Ditoro.
City Hall said McCarthy was not available for comment. He spoke with WAMC after his first veto. "The area 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. 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.”
McCarthy added he's frustrated by this year's budget process.
The council’s latest spending plan earmarks $1.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to cover trash collection. The city has yet to hear from the U.S. Treasury as to whether it can use the funding in that way. Council President Marion Porterfield could not be reached for comment.
Ditoro wonders if depending on getting approval to use that funding to supplement the budget may be a bad decision in the long run.
“That budget that was presented to us just last week, did use an additional $1.7 million to make the balance, the budget balance, but that ARPA money is basically depleted. And we need to realize that. And moving forward, we need to make sure that we have a balanced budget this year so that we're not increasing taxes or fees double next year, if not more,” Ditoro said.
Ditoro says the ball is in McCarthy's court. “We're still in a holding pattern. I'm hoping that the mayor will veto the budget. And we'll go back to deliberations in the near future and hopefully have a budget passed by December 31st."
After that, the city risks a full-fledged government shutdown.
Even if this year's budget is fixed and passes in time, officials say Schenectady should expect a multi-million dollar 2025 budget shortfall.
