POUGHKEEPSIE – Mayor Marc Nelson submitted his $105 million proposed 2024 budget to the common council Monday afternoon. The plan includes a request to override the state tax cap by raising taxes by 6.3 percent. The council has not indicated if they are willing to allow the override, which requires a super-majority council approval.
Noting that a previous administration had created a deficit of more than $13 million, Nelson noted that he worked with former Mayor Rob Rolison to reduce the burden created by former Mayor John Tkaczyk. Nelson cited “mismanagement” by the Tkaczyk administration from 2008 to 2015 played a role in the loss. “The real key to what created the deficit was poor budgeting and this is why the budget I’m submitting to the common council is so important because it keeps us on the path of erasing that deficit,” while calling his spending plan “A sustainable budget policy and practice that will set the new mayor up for success.”
The city has remained under the property tax cap for six straight years while working to eradicate a $13.2 million general fund deficit the city had accrued as of January 2016. That deficit has been whittled to $2.8 million, and city officials expect the remaining general fund deficit will be retired in 2024 when the results of the city’s 2022 audit are finalized.
The mayor’s on-time, $104,794,574 million budget plan, which includes a general fund appropriation of approximately $67,016,163 million, now goes to the Common Council for review and approval.
The 2024 budget proposes a property tax increase of 6.3 percent, which raises $1.25 million more than the 2 percent state property tax cap.
The mayor cited inflationary pressures, rising employee and retiree health care costs, mandatory pension contributions and the near depletion of the American Rescue Plan Act funds as the main reasons for the needed increase in property tax revenue. Mayor Nelson also said that emergency medical response…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply