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Syracuse Common Councilors Approve Budget Revisions; Mayor Promises a Veto

Scott Willis
/
WAER News

Syracuse Common Councilors Monday made a series of revisions to the Miner administration’s budget proposal that affect the police and fire departments, as well as the land bank.  Councilors are shifting a total of $2 million from police and fire overtime budgets to their salary lines in order to cover the cost of hiring more officers.  Council majority leader Steve Thompson was on the force for more than three decades, retiring as chief.  He says the department is already down 41 officers from 2014 due to retirements…

"The $1.5 [million] will fund 15 additional officers.  The other 16 are already there and funded, they just haven't been put on.  Hopefully the mayor can put a class of 30 officers on and we can get moving so they'll be ready for next year."

Thompson says there isn’t a neighborhood meeting they go to that they don’t hear a call for more officers.  

Councilors also decided to place the land bank’s typical $1.5 million annual allotment into the city’s quickly dwindling fund balance.  Council finance committee chair Nader Maroun says the mayor wanted to use $18 million in reserves to balance the budget.

"The council felt that when we looked at the proposed budget in terms of spending down the fund balance, we said we needed to do something to prevent us from going down further.  We  felt that there was enough money in the fund balance for the land bank to operate."

The land bank has more than $4 million in its reserves, which Executive Director Katelyn Wright says is there for a reason.

"As we go forward, our expenses are going to go up every year because our inventory is growing; and our revenues are going to go down because we've sold the best buildings and we're left with stuff that's not as marketable.  So that gap is going to grow every year."

Wright says they’ve sold 440 properties, but the remaining 550 in their inventory aren’t in very good shape.

"About half of the structures we own are awaiting demolition.  People drive around the city and see our signs and ask 'how come the land bank is not doing anything with these properties?'  They don't see instant results.  What's going to happen as a result of this is that we'll only be able to do half as many demolitions as we planned for the coming year."

Wright says it'll be around 56 instead of about one hundred.  The land bank does have other sources of funding…including about $2.2 million from the attorney general’s office for demolitions.  In all, Onondaga County and the AG have provided a combined $10 million in support over the past four years, on top of the city’s $8 million.  Mayor Stephanie Miner in a release calls the council’s budget disingenuous and irresponsible, and plans a veto. The chiefs of police and fire say the overtime cuts reduce their flexibility to meet the varying demands for service.  

Credit Scott Willis / WAER News
/
WAER News
From left to right, Councilors Joe Carni, Chad Ryan, Susan Boyle, Khalid Bey, and Nader Maroun vote on budget amendments.

Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.