Yonkers City Councilman and Budget Chair Anthony Merante
By Dan Murphy
Councilman Anthony Merante, who is also the Chair of the Council’s Budget Committee, told Yonkers Rising that he will not vote for any budget that has any property tax increase.
“I have voted for two tax increases in the past two budgets, and there is plenty of money at this point. With all of the uncertainty out there, we don’t need to be raising taxes on homeowners,” said Merante.
“The people have paid enough, we are letting the state off the hook. We have not had an increase in AIM funding for years, and now the state is holding back there last AIM payment due to us. Now we have to issue short term bonds in case the AIM funds don’t come here in time. We send $50 Million more up to Albany every year and now we need that money back.”
When asked if all of the other councilmembers vote yes on the budget, would he be comfortable being the only no vote, and that no vote coming from the Budget Chair? “I will absolutely be ok being the lone no vote. Any tax increase is an insult to the taxpayers. We just found out that NYC will not be raising its water rates, so Yonkers doesn’t have to raise its water rates. That is a savings in the budget that we can use, along with using some fund balance and reduce other expenses, to cover the budget without a tax increase.
“I want to give the taxpayers some hope and give them confidence, so that they will go out and start spending money again. I want to show the people that we are acting in good faith and trying to squeeze everything out of the taxes they already pay. But before I ask our homeowners for more money, I want our Monday from Albany and I want it now,” said Merante.
Council President Mike Khader told Yonkers Rising that he is still reviewing the budget and is looking for “legislative reforms to the budget process before I can vote yes on this budget.”
Khader said that while he is happy that there will be no water rate incrase this year, “water rates have gone up by 300% in recent years. I will be calling for a tiered system of water rates, where homeowners and businesses pay a different tiers, so that homeowners can be protected.”
Khader added that he will be seeking other items of negotiatoins, which may extend a council vote on the budget into next week.
There have been several new developments in the upcoming City of Yonkers budget for the 2021 fiscal year. First, Governor Andrew Cuomo has not announced the final details of the state budget, due in part because Congress and President Trump have yet to agree on a 4th COVID bailout backage that hopefully, for the people of New York, will include funds for NYS government.
Despite the lack of a state budget to determine if Yonkers will get the same amount of State Aid that it received last year, Yonkers did receive bad news from the State budget office that the City would not receive its last payment or installment of Municipal Aid, AIM, on time.
Yonkers was due an AIM funding payment of $94 Million from NY State, but the Governor and the State Budget office are holding back on payments because they don’t know how much of a deficit the State budget will have
Last month, Mayor Mike Spano presented a budget to the City Council which calls for spending $1.2Billion and has a tax increase of 2%. The Council has been reviewing Spano’s spending plan and is close to voting on an amended budget, which would raise property taxes by just under 2%, and would have no layoffs.
But if the City Council votes on Spano’s budget with minor changes this week, the budget future for Yonkers is still very much up in the air without a concrete dollar amount from Albany for State Aid. And Albany is waitiing to see if they get a bailout from Washington before they tell Yonkers how much state aid it will receive.
Despite the remaining questions, the City and Finance Commissioner John Lieszewski want the Council to pass a budget so that the City can issue short term bonds to borrow if needed and so that the tax bills can be mailed to property owners next month.
The other tidbit of budget information is that if the council as expected, adopts a budget similar to Mayor Spano’s spending plan, and the Mayor signs it, what happens if Yonkers then gets bad news from Albany that state aid will be cut by another $10 Million or $20 Million immediately?
The responsibility will then fall on Mayor Spano to make the appropriate budgtet spending cuts. The ony way the Mayor will be able to balance the budget will be through spending cuts, he cannot increase taxes beyond what the council approved in the budget now under review. That is why if Congress and the President doesn’t bail out New York State, Yonkers could be facing layoffs.
Before any of the COVID 19 cuts come next month, the Yonkers Public Schools faces a $22 Million shortfall for its budget for the upcoming 2020-21 school year right now. The Mayor and City Council have agreed to bond the cost of books and supplies, which will save the YPS $5 Million and reduce the budget hole to $17 Million.
The Yonkers Federation of Teachers, and its 1634 members, are due a contracted salary increase this upcoming school year, which will cost the city and taxpayers $15 Million If the YFT and its teachers agree to delay that salary increase, it will close the YPS budget gap and avoid teacher layoffs.
