Yonkers City Council Passes Budget 6-1

Cuomo Could Cut Yonkers Aid this Summer

By Dan Murphy

Usually in a Yonkers budget cycle, once the City Council passes a budget and the Mayor signs the budget, the debate is over and there is certainty on the amount of revenue the City and the Yonkers Public Schools will have for employees, services and programs.
But even after the City Council voted 6-1 to approve a $1.2 Billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, there is still a number of unknowns for the future of how much money that City Hall and the Board of Education has to spend.
That is because the State of New York has the same uncertainty, and cannot tell Yonkers and other local governments how much money they can afford to give them in both municipal aid and state education aid. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo is still waiting and hoping for Congress and President Trump to agree on a 4th stimulus-bailout that would give Cuomo and New York the money they need to balance their budget, and then provide Cities like Yonkers their usual share of State Aid.
But last week, the City Council did what it had to do, and pass a budget. The Adopted Budget stays within the state-mandated property tax cap, maintains all city services, and has a property tax increase of 1.58%. City water and sewer rates will have no increase.
The City of Yonkers needed an adopted budget so that the Finance Department can borrow short term in case the State slows down or holds back some of its aid payments, and so that tax bills can be sent out to homeowners on time.
“This year’s budget has proven to be one of the most difficult as our city, state and country deal with the economic impacts of a global pandemic,” said Mayor Spano. “The city has lost millions in economically sensitive revenues. Despite this, we stayed within the tax cap so as to not overburden our taxpayers as they, too, are trying to navigate this storm.”
Council President Mike Khader said, “Today I joined my colleagues in adopting the City of Yonkers Fiscal Year 2020/2021 Budget in a 6 – 1 vote. This year’s budget process was different because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic requiring them to be held virtually for the first time in council history. Due to the tremendous negative impact that the pandemic has had on our city, it was important that this budget was passed on time to prevent the city from running out of money.
“ This budget calls for no cuts to city services and has no layoffs, while staying under the state-mandated 2% property tax cap. It also makes improvements to our water system, with zero water rate increases for residents in the upcoming year, and the creation of a tiered water rate system – something that protects residents by now charging commercial enterprises in Yonkers different rates than homeowners. The City Council will soon invest in a “good government” software system that is has been used by other governmental agencies like Westchester County and New York State for years. This will be used by the City Council and Clerks Office to modernize record-keeping, help speed up interdepartmental coordination, and increase transparency,” said Khader.

The 2021 Adopted Budget also increases the School District’s budget, totaling the city’s contribution to $269.6 million — making it the largest local share of any big city to a district outside of New York City. Despite the record increase in the City’s school funding, the School District still will need to eliminate up to 168 positions because Yonkers continues to receive far less school funding from the state government than the state’s other large cities.
The Yonkers Public Schools, Superintendent Dr. Edwin Quezada and the Board of Education had two options to close a $22 Million hole. One option is to get the Yonkers Federation of Teachers, YFT, to agree to delaying a salary increase, which would save $15 million. The Mayor and Council agreed to bond out the cost of books for the YPS, which would save another $5 Million.
The other option was to cut positions thoughout the YPS to close the $21 M budget hole. And with no agreement from the YFT on forgoing their pay raise, cutting 186 positions is what Quezada and the BOE will do.
Mayor Spano commented, “While the city has provided record aid to our schools, it is still not enough as the state did not provide the additional funding to our schools as we had hoped. Our schools will have to make some tough decisions and need to work within the allocated budget so that our students, teachers, administrators and staff can still work efficiently and effectively.”
Council Minority Leader Mike Breen said, “The City’s finances were on pace to exceed projections and then the global pandemic caused a loss of millions of dollars in economically sensitive revenues. Even still, we were able pass a responsible budget that maintains City services while not overburdening our taxpayers with excessive increases.”
Breen, like Spano and Councilman Anthony Merante, the lone no vote on the council for the budget, all blamed Albany for a lack of funding.
Councilman John Rubbo said that he voted yes on the budget because it maintained all city services, and at an additional cost to property tax owners of $225 per year, or $18.75 per month. “This budget: maintains 3 day pickup for sanitation, keeps the men and women in blue in our precincts and on the street to protect each and every one of us, fully staffs the fire department, delivers much needed improvements to the Bernice Spreckman Senior center at Coyne Park, sets aside $1,000,000 for technology for our public school students, adds 4 additional nurses in September as our children prepare to return to school post COVID-19, invests tens of millions of dollars in our school buildings, and delivers on a promise I made which is to improve the Yonkers Avenue Corridor, like we have done for Lockwood Avenue, McLean Avenue, Midland Avenue and Main Street.”
“Unlike my first two years on the City Council, this year we were forced to deal with a pandemic that no one expected. Our economy was booming. Businesses were doing well. People were working. And Our schools were educating a record number of students. And then COVID-19. Although we are giving additional funding to our school system there will still be a shortage in our Board of Education. I am saddened by that, but the City of Yonkers and its residents can only do so much each year. I want to thank Senators Shelley Mayer and Majority Leader Cousins for once again providing a $12M boost to our school budget,” stated Rubbo.

Council Majority Leader Corazon Pineda-Isaac, said, “This year’s budget season has proven to be a particularly challenging one. However, despite the impacts made by COVID-19 on our economy and on our livelihoods, we were able to come together to adopt an on-time budget, which calls for no cuts to city services for our residents, provides relief to our taxpayers and makes great strides in education investment as well as funding for community programs.
“The economic toll of the pandemic has led to a lost of millions in revenue, however, we were able to stay within the state tax cap of 2% easing the burden on our taxpayers. The city budget increases the School District budget to $269.9 million — the largest of any big city contribution to a school district outside of New York City. Unfortunately, even with this increase, schools will still face difficult decisions due to the lack of funding from the state government.
“Although this is not a perfect budget, or as much as we had hoped for, it is the best we can do given our current situation. This would not have been possible without the help of our NYS representatives Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Senator Mayer, Assemblyman Pretlow and Assemblyman Sayegh for their contribution in additional aid for education,” said Pineda-Isaac.  

City Councilman and Budget Committee Chair Anthony Merante voted no on the budget. See our story from last week on the reasons why Merante voted no.

Another possible way out of the budget crisis in New York State is to wait, and hope, for the election of Joe Biden as President. More on this idea next week.