The Plattsburgh Common Council presented its five-year budget plan to the mayor Thursday evening.
The Plattsburgh city charter requires the council to present a five-year budget plan to the mayor annually by June 1st. During Thursday’s meeting, Common Council budget officer Ward 2 Democrat Mike Kelly outlined the plan that begins on January 1st, 2020. “Our expenses have been brought into line with revenue so that deficit spending has ended at least until the year 2023. Now I’m concerned about that. I don’t want to leave a legacy of tax deficits so we as a council must work very hard over the next couple of years to see if we can increase revenue while decreasing spending.”
Kelly noted the challenge to accomplish that. “It costs about 3.15 percent we think extra each year to run the city. The tax rate’s about 2 percent and that discrepancy is always going to be a problem for us. We have to recognize that and continue to find ways to do both growth and continue to hold the line on expenses.”
Councilor Kelly also pointed to projected deficits in outlying years that the council must address. “For the year 2020 what we are expecting and hoping that the city can do is reduce expenses by a total of $900,000. We believe that attrition can handle most if not all of that. The next year in 2021 we’re looking for the city to cut an additional $850,000 in expenses and that’s going to be the challenging one. The reason that 2023 concerns me is we end up with a deficit. That’ll be the first time in several years.”
Mayor Colin Read says the council has presented him with some very difficult benchmarks to meet as he crafts the next fiscal year budget. “What we can do this year and next year is work on expenses and efficiencies. But then three or four years down the road hopefully we can translate some of the investments we’re making in the Durkee Street, in generating jobs here to solve the rest of the gap through growth. I think it’s a sound policy. Obviously a lot of work is ahead for us to successfully do that but if we can do that the city becomes much more fiscally sustainable.”
The five-year plan passed unanimously and was forwarded to the mayor’s office. The mayor expects his budget to be submitted to the council sometime in July or August.
