(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins talks about budget figures with, from left, councilors Mary Gooden, Diana Palmer, and Ed Donohue. Special Assistant to the mayor, and the mayor's budget director Chip McTiernan is at right.
The City of Glens Falls is proposing a $22.6 million budget, up about $525,000 from last year. The main driver of the increase is health insurance costs up $311,788, according to draft talking points Mayor Bill Collins distributed to Common Council members at a recent budget discussion. Fuel costs for police and public works vehicles — up $43,000 — liability insurance — up $56,000 — and payroll and retirement increases — also up $56,000 — round out the major increases, the memo says.
Real property taxes to landowners will rise by the state-allowed 2% maximum this year to $10.9 million, up from $10.7 million last year.
However, under the newly-adopted, citywide, real estate assessments, the tax rate per $1,000 of assessed value has fallen to $8.38, down from $13.49. Under the new assessment, the city has $1.4 billion in total real estate value, up from $888 million previously.
About one-third of the land owners will see their tax bill rise, one-third will see the bill drop, and the final third will see little change, the mayor told the council, a statement he has repeated during common council meetings.
The budget discussion on Tuesday evening Nov. 8, just before the Common Council meeting, grew a little heated, as Ward 4 Councilor Ben Laphamn and Ward 3 Councilor Diana Palmer said they felt their concerns with the budget were not necessarily being heard.
Lapham drew attention to a $1.5 million gap in the budget, while Palmer focused more on the full-time positions that have been added to the budget in recent years.
Lapham admitted during an interview Nov. 10 that this is his first budget season, and some of his worries are simply part of learning the job.
He said it was his understanding that the revenue estimates are on the conservative side, and that is adding to the gap. In a separate interview Mayor Bill Collins agreed that the revenue estimates, especially around sales taxes, are likely low, but they both said this keeps the city on solid footing. As well, the city is working on payment-in-lieu-of-taxes contracts with developers such as SpringCity which is developing a large portion of South Street. Those contracts are not finalized, so they are not listed in the city’s revenue.
“I’m looking at other things too,” Lapham said in the interview. “This is why I wasn’t ready to commit to the budget” at the discussion on Tuesday.
He highlighted the report from an independent auditor of the city’s finances. Generally, it was positive but the audit said the city seems to lack controls over fraud and misstatements "that could affect the city’s financial statements.” This has been a recurring point in the audits since 2013, the report said. Lapham pushed to look at the potential weakness this year.
Palmer has been considering at least three positions that had been non-existent, part-time, or shared with the Warren County Economic Development Corporation but are now full-time positions in the city’s budget.
The positions of economic development director, community development director and communications director have been added in the past two budget cycles.
“We need to think carefully about all our spending,” she said, adding that her concerns were not “anything to do with the specific people in those positions.” She was thinking of salaries and benefits that are now part of each budget moving forward.
The mayor said in an interview Nov. 10 that he understood the concerns of the council members, and admitted that he should have taken more time earlier to explain his thinking behind the budget.
“These are scary numbers and inflation makes them worse,” Collins said, adding that he does not think it is wise to cut positions at this point.
"They [the three directors] have enough work to do," he said more than once during the budget discussion.
Still, he said: “This is their job to look at these detailed numbers and cut everywhere we can."
Because of the reticence, the Common Council agreed to another budget meeting between themselves set for Tuesday Nov. 15. At 6p.m. on second floor of City Hall.
The council opened a public hearing on the budget at the Nov. 6 council meeting. It will remain open until the Nov. 22 council meeting, and the vote may be taken then. The budget must be approved by Dec. 1 under state law, so the council may hold a special meeting to approve the budget between Nov. 22 and the end of the month, if needed.