Syracuse will be broke in three years, Mayor Miner says (New York: 2014, home)

[urbanplanner]

Syracuse will be broke within three years, Mayor Stephanie Miner says | syracuse.com

The city faces a $40 million projected budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2014 and with only $6 million in savings remaining at that point, the municipality is expected to end that year $34 million in the hole. “There are no more orthodoxies,” Miner said. “What we need to do is get everyone around the table and start sharing sacrifices and figure out how we can avoid going off the cliff.” I guess my only question is, if you knew this was coming why not put aside those "orthodoxies" with your latest budget? I agree with no more orthodoxies, but the city is spend more money, without increased taxes, and has increased employment in the latest budget. The Common Council approved a larger $657 million city budget than Mayor Miner proposed, which includes $2 million in spending added by the Common Council, without increasing taxes or fees. The 2012-2013 budget, which takes effect July 1, includes $359 million for the city school district and $298 million for city operations. Mayor Stephanie Miner’s initially proposed a $662 million spending plan, but that was reduced it to $655 million after the school district cut its spending.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner proposes no tax hike in city budget | syracuse.com

If serious about "no more orthodoxies", then bold solutions are needed, i.e. consolidation of services with the County, privatization where possible, further increase employee pension and health care contributions, etc. Another possible saving is the State assuming Medicaid spending, now mandated to localities. It is my understanding that the Mayor has recruited a three-person panel of experts to advise the city on financial matters, including Bob Wilmers, chairman and CEO of M&T Bank, and Marc Shaw, senior vice chancellor of City University of New York. The Mayor announced in January that the advisory board would be chaired by former Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch. It sounds like an impressive group of members, none of whom are from CNY by the way (which may not be a bad thing).

[acknight]

This has been a drum Miner's been beating since she got into office and it's a predicament most cities in the northeast are in - and it's only been being pushed off each year by one-time influxes of cash from the state to help balance things. Raising property taxes (which are mostly capped anyways) wouldn't raise nearly enough to fill the gap.

It's an old city with lots of old infrastructure that needs attention, on top of unfunded mandates from the state. The vast majority of the spending in the budget isn't discretionary - it's largely things locked into contracts and state mandates that are rising.

[ckhthankgod]

I wonder if there will be a push for consolidation with it being a countywide entity, including schools?

[urbanplanner]

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

I wonder if there will be a push for consolidation with it being a countywide entity, including schools?

I hope so, I think it is sorely needed.

I think there are two issues, consolidation and un-funded mandates from Albany. Some city-county consolidations include Indianapolis, Indiana; Nashville, Tennessee; Jacksonville, Florida; Louisville, Kentucky; Kansas City, Kansas; Lexington, Kentucky; Denver, Colorado; Athens–Clarke County, Georgia; Augusta–Richmond County, Georgia; and Butte-Silver Bow, Montana. Maybe the City and County can get in touch with some of these localities and consider some options. Mayor Miner is also right, mandates like Medicaid need to be addressed by Albany or Cuomo is going to a have a string of bankrupt cities on his hands. I thought he supported assuming Medicaid payments from localities in conjuction with property tax caps, which won't work unless the former is done.

[acknight]

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

I wonder if there will be a push for consolidation with it being a countywide entity, including schools?

Would be nice to see... but there will be a lot of pushback. But yes, there's no rational reason to need to have 17-19 (depending on how you count them) full separate school districts in this county, complete with the full administrative staffs to support them.

[Sean®]

I'm in a different county so just a detached observer in this but I think if they try attaching Syracuse city schools to prosperous suburbs I think it will mean war. Or Uhaul. I bet people won't stand for it.

Non school stuff might work. Isn't Broome County like that??

Idiots like me have been screaming for years (decades) that this spending party can't go on forever so lets tweak it while its easy. Nope, can't hear ya.

Now the chickens are home to roost. On every level, local State and Federal.

Can it be fixed without a revolution?? We'll have to see.................

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by Sean®

I'm in a different county so just a detached observer in this but I think if they try attaching Syracuse city schools to prosperous suburbs I think it will mean war. Or Uhaul. I bet people won't stand for it.

Non school stuff might work. Isn't Broome County like that??

Idiots like me have been screaming for years (decades) that this spending party can't go on forever so lets tweak it while its easy. Nope, can't hear ya.

Now the chickens are home to roost. On every level, local State and Federal.

Can it be fixed without a revolution?? We'll have to see.................

I think for the school thing, you can keep the district lines, but just have either a county superintendent or cut it up into 4 governing bodies that are North, South, East and West. Each adjacent part of the city could go with the respective directional county district, with the Institute of Technology at Central becoming a competitive county wide magnet school, with first dibs to or about half being students that live in the city of Syracuse.

For the other things, I agree that there should be more consolidation in order.