Albany City Budget 2007 and Beyond


By DIA, Section News
Posted on Sat Sep 30, 2006 at 05:27:31 AM EST

Let's take a trip back to the 2006 state of the city address by Mayor Jennings.
"We only have a few years," Jennings said. "Without a landfill, you would have a financial control board in this city within two years. You would either be laying off a third of the workers at the department of general services or raising taxes 28, 38 percent. "If we don't get the landfill, no one will want this job."
So, Jennings admits that without the money from the landfill, which grosses $13 million a year but also costs us all money in legal fees and various other costs, the city would be in bad shape. And no one will want to be the mayor of Albany. Makes sense. Hard to just come up with an extra $13 million a year without drastically raising property taxes.

Now, Mayor Jennings says everything is all well and good in 2007 and he won't be raising our taxes. Sounds good, right?
Mayor Jerry Jennings unveiled a $153 million 2007 budget Friday that holds the line on property taxes and includes an increase in payments from the state in lieu of taxes.
Now let's take a look at this. The budget is going up but you aren't paying any more in property taxes. How's that happen? The magic of PILOT payments (which, you of course fund through state taxes). So, the Jennings budget has increased 5.7% but that increase will be paid with PILOT payments. So as long as we always have our PILOT payments our taxes should never go up, right? So let's take a look at those PILOT payments which if Jennings gets his way will be almost $23 million in 2007 and 2008.
Jennings lobbied state officials to amend the agreement covering payments in lieu of taxes -- PILOTS -- to give the city this year $22.85 million in PILOTS instead $16.85 million. Next year, the city will receive the same $22.85 million instead of $16.1 million that had been scheduled.

The convention center legislation signed in June included $22.85 million a year until 2010, city officials said. Then, starting in 2011, it drops to $15 million a year through 2033, and those funds will assist in defraying the debt service on the hotel portion of the convention center complex. Until then, the PILOT money goes into the operating budget for city expenses
Now for those of you who have been following along I'm sure you can see what the problem is here. Starting in 2011 the PILOT payments drop to $15 million a year AND those funds are being promised as insurance to the hotel corporation for the new convention center hotel in case the hotel doesn't make the profit it wants. So, a good chunk of that $15 million could go to Paris Hilton in the form of corporate welfare. So that leaves the city with having to make up at least $7 million and quite possibly a lot more. Which could put us near that $13 million landfill number the absence of which in the budget the mayor has assured us would be a huge problem for the city. And between now and 2011 when we will have the serious budget issue you can be assured that the general cost to operate the city will have gone up even more. And its important to note that Jennings has been on a borrowing binge since he took office.
Albany's per capita debt -- the amount owed for every resident -- increased 66 percent from $1,513 in 1999 to $2,517 in 2004, according to a Times Union analysis of annual audits. Overall debt jumped from $144.7 million to $237.1 million
In the 2007 budget alone there was an increase of $2 million just to pay back all of the money Jennings has borrowed.

Summary: Jennings is following the modern Republican fiscal model of borrowing and spending. There are serious holes in the future city budget not even taking into account the landfill disaster that he has mismanaged over the past 13 years. When Jennings talks about not raising taxes he is essentially just pushing off the inevitable on future adminstrations (much like Republicans are fond of doing....see Pataki and Bush). If you were thinking about moving out of Albany you might want to keep the year 2010 on your calendar.

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Albany City Budget 2007 and Beyond | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
What will really be interesting (none / 0) (#1)
by alfrednewman on Sat Sep 30, 2006 at 05:58:28 AM EST
is what the Common Council will do with this. I seem to recall that they approved a lot of borrowing so that they could claim they kept the taxes low.  
"What? Me worry? " "whatmeworry.alfred@gmail.com"
agreed (none / 0) (#2)
by DIA on Sat Sep 30, 2006 at 06:30:44 AM EST
council members like Conti (quoted in article) are also just as much to blame.  They are going along with the whole scam.

[ Parent ]
Budget Horror Show - It's all Jerry. (none / 0) (#3)
by champlain on Sat Sep 30, 2006 at 09:47:01 AM EST
Yo Al, it's freaking hilarious that you blame the Common Council for the city's skyrocketing debt and budget horror show.  You know it's 98% Jerry.  Who writes the budget - who writes the borrowing plan - who writes the capital plan?  NOT THE COMMON COUNCIL.  For God's sake THE COUNCIL HAS ONLY HAD THE POWER TO VOTE ON THE BUDGET SINCE 1999.  Thanks to Albany's `super- strong mayor' form of government Hizzoner had six years in office before he even had to let the Council vote on the city budget.  What a killing joke.  You might remember that about a year ago a citizen's group tried to put some more balance between the executive (Hizzoner) and legislative (Council) with some petitioning to make revisions to the Albany city charter.  However, after some outrageous arm-twisting by Hizzoner, three gutless Council members who originally announced they would support the citizen group plan switched their vote to "NO" when the Council had the opportunity to put the charter changes on the November 2005 ballot.

The Mayor is spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave.  When Hizzoner gets thrown in the municipal finance brig he calls his big-spending buddy George `Elmer' Pataki to bail him out with another $23 million of State aid.  The Elmer has a $113 BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET - what's another $23 million - hell, it's chicken feed to the Elmer.

Hizzoner needs an intervention and quick - but nobody has the will to say NO to the boozy/orangy one.  The Council can't do it (doesn't have the votes and even if they did Conti would `fix' it for Hizzoner), the City Treasurer won't do it (she's in bed with Hizzoner so she can drive a City provided car and play at Dem County Chair), the City Comptroller won't do it (tries to finesse some fiscal responsibility into the City borrowing plans and budgets but always gets outflanked by Hizzoner and Hizonner's band of merry men).  Hizzoner almost never makes the hard choices like cutting jobs, or budgets or services.  Or when he does cut - he cuts the muscle not the fat - things like the Arbor Hill Police Station - that police station in one of the highest crime areas of Albany.  That way, Albany can stay in the top 10 most dangerous cities for its size in the nation.  Meanwhile, Hizzoner keeps on buying new golf carts for the Albany municipal golf course (off-budget of course).

What a freaking racket these Republicans have (and closet Republicans like Hizzoner).  They BORROW AND SPEND into oblivion like tomorrow will never come.  They drive government off the financial cliff and when the D's come in and have to raise some taxes to cover all the R's spending and obligations that go out for 20 plus years - well, then the R's all scream: THE DEMOCRATS ARE RAISING YOUR TAXES!

Did you see Hizzoner's dopey performance at Friday's budget announcement?  When asked what Hizzoner would do if he didn't have the Governor's $23 million in State aid - Jer says without blinking `financial control board'.  What a drama queen.  He's ran the City for over 12 years - turned the Pine Bush Preserve into a toxic waste festival -  and he can't get a budget done without under the table cashbags from the Elmer.  What an incompetent twit.   It almost makes me long for the days of Tom Whalen and his $30 million budget surpluses.  At least Tommy, for all his faults, was a cheap moth$$fu$$er and didn't have to sell his soul to get bail money from whomever happened to be governor at the time.

Yo Al, have fun watching your property taxes and property assessments hit the stratosphere.  Hope you're stocking up on yummy stout for the countdown to 2010 tax oblivion.  I know some good Article 7 people if you want to sue on your new assessments - call me...I'll share.

A bientot.


[ Parent ]

Champlain (none / 0) (#4)
by alfrednewman on Sat Sep 30, 2006 at 11:50:43 AM EST
Maybe I should just go back and paste last years discussions here. Oh, wait, check that. I wont make THAT mistake again. Not like any ward leaders will be running interference for me.

Look Champlian: I agree with most of your post. I dont think anyone in the city and county really could give a crap about expenses or cares what the effect is on the homeowners and businesses.

I read the book about Whalen. He was under a lot of pressure from the state and the Rapp Road landfill predates Jennings, doesnt it?

Id call you, Champ, but you know how I am with phone numbers and I hate calling people at work.

I wont be here in 2010. Im thinking of going to law school. Maybe if Forbes runs again I will go to NH wave signs and worry about where the photos show up.  Whatchathink?

Note to self: More yummy stout- less IPA. It just doesnt mix well.  

 
"What? Me worry? " "whatmeworry.alfred@gmail.com"
[ Parent ]

Someone wanted the job (none / 0) (#5)
by A Muse on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 03:18:07 PM EST
I   distinctly recall the quote and thought Jennings was telling everyone that if he did not get his way he wouldn't run for re-election.  Sort of reminded me of a former USSR ruler with a shoe.  I was sure he was not going to run and there would be Sullivan, Green and that Good guy to select from.  Just like a bad penny.  Against all odds - Jennings decided to do the citizens of Albany a favor.

At the Stewarts Sandwich Shop on Delaware, I heard that the real story was that he just put that information out there to give himself an out.  He thought he had landed himself a job and was going to use the dump issue to bail out at the last minute, but he didn't get the job.  No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't say, "Do you want fries with that"?  

His threat of cut backs of 28-38% sounded light to me.  Let's do the math.  One fellow working - two fellows watching the one fellow working.  A supervisor monitoring the two fellows watching the one fellow working.  A department head directing the supervisor monitoring the two fellows watching the one fellow working.  

You have done such a good job of explaining how Albanians are getting screwed  - enough said.  The sad thing is that not enough people really understand what is going on.


Albany City Budget 2007 and Beyond | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
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