Schenectady City Hall, where the council adopted a 2027 budget with a 14 percent tax increase. Photo: Tyler A. McNeil, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Schenectady City Council voted 5-1 on Thursday, Nov. 5, to adopt a 2027 budget with a 14 percent property tax levy increase, WAMC reported. Councilmember John Mootooveren voted no, and Councilmember Carmel Patrick was absent. Five votes were needed to override the state tax cap. Today in Schenectady, citing the Daily Gazette, said the new rate is about $15.48 per $1,000 of assessed value, or roughly $380 more a year on a house assessed at $200,000. WAMC described the increase as a levy increase; Today in Schenectady described it as a rate increase.
The adopted figure was far below the mayor’s original request. WAMC said Mayor Gary McCarthy had proposed a 43 percent increase; Today in Schenectady, citing WNYT, described the earlier figure as 42 percent. Council members got the number down, WAMC reported, by writing in an additional $6.5 million in state aid that has not been secured, by raising the amount they expect to collect from the sales tax without raising the sales-tax rate, and by cutting $1.7 million in overtime, vacant positions and stipends. Today in Schenectady said the city plans to seek nearly $7 million in state aid. WAMC described an approximately $15 million budget gap; Today in Schenectady said the city faces a $14 million deficit.
The council had been due to pass a budget on or before Nov. 1 under the city charter. A Monday proposal with a 15 percent increase failed after three members refused to go above 13 percent, WAMC reported. On Thursday, Councilmember Kim Wiggins, who had been among those holding out for 13 percent, said, “I feel like 14 [%] is meeting us in the middle.” Councilmember Doreen Ditoro said she would vote yes “for the safety of our budget and our residents” but was “disappointed with a lot of things.”
McCarthy told WAMC that if the extra state aid does not come through, the result would likely be “substantial layoffs and reductions in service.” Councilmember Hayden Engert called the plan “bare bones” and said there was “nothing in that budget that we could cut.” He also said the sales-tax number looked “budgeted a little high.” The city will end 2026 with an empty general fund balance, and the state comptroller has rated Schenectady “susceptible to fiscal stress,” WAMC reported. The council unanimously passed a non-binding resolution on Monday asking the state for the aid, and McCarthy pointed to the election of Democrat Sarah Rogerson to a State Senate seat long held by Republican Jim Tedisco, a district that includes parts of the city.
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