Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan presented her budget proposal Tuesday at city hall.
Sheehan, a third-term Democrat, is proposing a $221 million spending plan. “That's a nearly $5 million reduction from last year, and that is caused mainly by the fact that the $81 million that we received from the American Rescue Plan was pretty much fully funded and fully budgeted last year so that we could meet the mandate of the federal government that we had to identify ways of utilizing that money by the end of this year, so we are back to what our residents will probably see as a more stable budget going forward," said Sheehan, who noted that police, fire and general services will benefit from about $2.5 million in state aid.
After a rare citywide property reassessment early this year, some homeowners will have to dig a little deeper into their pockets.
Under the mayor's budget proposal the city's tax levy goes up less than 2%, charting below the inflation rate. Sheehan gave examples of how property taxes will vary ward to ward.
"A home in the third ward that saw a 41% increase in their value, when that individual got that notice in the mail, they probably were really worried about what the impact was going to be on their property taxes. They saw the value of their home go from $125,000 to $176,000. But because the average assessment increase across the city was roughly 60% this individual is actually going to see a 12% reduction in their taxes, their city property taxes, compared to last year. So their bill is going to go down by about $176. Now for this six ward homeowner that saw their property value go from $411,000 to $749,000, they are going to see a tax increase. They are going to see their tax bill go up by about $660 for the entire year," Sheehan said.
The budget includes provisions for public safety, recreation, infrastructure and mental health services.
"So that takes us to our uniquely Albany problem, as we have said, every year, over 64% of our property in the city of Albany is tax exempt," said Sheehan. "The state owns $6.5 billion worth of that real property, and the state and its authorities own more than the entire tax base of the city of Albany."
Sheehan proposes solving the problem by combining and re-basing Capital City Funding and Albany’s Empire State Plaza PILOT to be a total of $35 million for the next state fiscal year, and making them permanent under New York State Public Lands Law. Sheehan says that would cover all of the essential services the city provides to accommodate state workers.
“This $35 million, just to be clear, represents a half a percent of the value of the state's property in the city of Albany. We can do this, and I hope that the council will join me in doing all that we can and I look to our workforce to also help me. We've had tremendous support from our unions to advocate for this. This is a year to pull out the stops and make this happen,” Sheehan said.
109th district state Assemblymember Pat Fahy, who is running for state Senate, tells WAMC she hadn’t heard about the specific dollar request, but knew the city would ask for a higher amount, adding “either way, it sets the stage for next year.”
Common Councilor Owusu Anane represents Albany’s 10th ward.
“We have a fiduciary responsibility to be protectors of taxpayer dollars, and I plan on going line by line with my colleagues on the council and the finance committee to review the mayor's budget and ultimately, whether we support it or don't, that decision is going to be made at a later time,” Anane said.
The Common Council typically approves the budget in mid-November.
