Syracuse, NY – Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh today outlined his proposed budget for 2022 calling for new classes of police and firefighters, new workers tasked with cleaning up the city’s streets and parks, and a new urban unit that has the task of taking action against poor living conditions in the city of large apartment buildings.
The $ 264.9 million budget keeps the property tax rate and water tariff flat and does not use any of the city’s reserves. Walsh plans to use about a sixth of the city’s incoming government stimulus money to balance the books and restore the cuts decided last year as part of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The budget lacks a plan for how the city will spend the rest of the $ 126 million it received from the US bailout stimulus package. Walsh said proposals for this money are still being worked out and will require input from the public and the joint council. He expects to have more details within a month.
“We wanted to make sure that given the schedule, we would continue to focus on the annual budget and use the ARP funds to support the budget, but we didn’t want to confuse the two,” he said.
Walsh plans to use $ 20.7 million from the American Rescue Plan fund to balance the budget, restore the cuts made last year, and hire some new employees. This includes restoring the Police Department’s ShotSpotter technology – a $ 250,000 program that alerts officers to the sound of gunfire in real time – and hiring an administrative judge to deal with Code violations.
That leaves around $ 105 million in federal funding. The priority for that money, Walsh said, will be “transformation” projects. Walsh said he will ask the council to schedule an additional hearing next month where he can come up with a separate plan for that money.
A likely use for some of that money, Walsh said, will be to launch a community sidewalk maintenance program. It’s something he’s been talking about since he took office more than three years ago. It would put the burden of shoveling, maintaining, and if necessary replacing sidewalks on the city, not an owner.
The proposed budget provides money for staff to support the new sidewalk program, and Walsh said he expected to present a detailed proposal for a full program to the Joint Council next month. The program would likely come with an annual homeowner fee.
Overall, Walsh said that the large federal funding injection will allow the city to restore many of the necessary services that have been cut away over the years and decades, particularly those related to services and quality of life issues.
“We feel like we’ve been fighting on many different fronts with one hand tied behind our back for years,” he said. “With this budget, we see an opportunity to invest heavily in our departments so that they can deliver the services our residents deserve. We don’t see these as extras. We see these as core services that the city should provide, but has not been able to do for decades. “
New initiatives in the household include a special urban unit dedicated to improving living conditions in apartment buildings. The city will set up a high occupancy monitoring and enforcement unit to solve problems in large apartment complexes. There will be a new member of the fire department who will work with code enforcement, police and legal staff.
The budget also includes a new class of firefighters and a new class of police officers, while the police budget remains flat. Frank Caliva, chief administrative officer, said the department had 377 sworn officers after a huge wave of retirements in recent years.
Although the police budget remains unchanged from last year, according to Walsh, there is an emergency fund set up in case the city has to pay for a raise. The police union and the city are currently in arbitration to finalize a new contract for civil servants. The contract, originally proposed by the city, would increase the police budget by millions in salary and incentive increases.
Walsh also plans to focus more resources on maintaining the city’s parks, sidewalks and green spaces, as well as avoiding litter in streets and public spaces.
The budget is to hire someone to maintain new trails along the Onondaga Creekwalk and the Empire State Trail on Erie Boulevard.
“It’s one of the things that I don’t think the city has been good at over the years. We’re good at securing resources for big investments, but then we’re not good at keeping those investments going,” said Walsh.
The city will have enough money to open all of its pools again this summer, Walsh said. Last year it took a fundraiser to occupy them all. Funding is also being donated for “pop-up” programs on the city’s waterways and for new playgrounds in Grace Massena Park and Onondaga Geddes Playground.
Also included in the budget is money for the legal department to hire someone else to respond more quickly to freedom of information requests.
“We haven’t been able to respond to FOIL requests as quickly as we need,” he said. “We pride ourselves on being open and transparent, and sometimes it is simply our lack of capacity that leads to the perception that we are not transparent.”
Walsh’s budget predicts revenue will remain unchanged as the city continues to recover from the pandemic. The city and school property tax rate is a flat rate of $ 27.1638 per $ 1,000 of estimated value. The tax levy will rise by $ 858,000 due to rising property values in the city.
The Joint Council will start practically next week with budget hearings and is expected to vote on a budget in early May.
