City Council approves budget by 3-2 vote

Revised spending plan keeps tax levy hike under 2 percent; includes 4.3 percent surcharge

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After three public hearings and a backlash from residents over tax increases totaling more than 8 percent in the proposed budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year, the City Council voted 3-2 on Tuesday to approve a revised $90.1 million spending plan that reduces the property tax levy increase and eliminates raises for council members and City Manager Jack Schnirman.

The initial budget had a tax levy increase of nearly 4 percent as well as a separate 4.3 percent tax surcharge to cover the remainder of a $20 million judgment the city must pay to two former owners of the Superblock property to resolve a decades-old lawsuit. But Councilwoman Eileen Goggin and council Vice President Anthony Eramo voted against the amended spending plan. Goggin was opposed to the tax increase and said that some of the anticipated revenue appear “speculative,” while Eramo, a Democrat who announced his candidacy for the State Assembly on Tuesday, cited the tax increase and the burden of the legal judgment.

Over the past month, City Manager Jack Schnirman has said that keeping spending below the state’s tax cap was untenable in light of “unavoidable” expense increases totaling $4.2 million. They include costs associated with the Superblock judgment as well as contractual raises, health care and retirement costs.

Schnirman said that given the rate of inflation, the tax cap for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, would be only .12 percent, or just $42,000 in additional revenue for the city, and he recommended overriding the cap, which the council did on May 17.

A week later, however, the budget’s tax levy increase was cut to 1.94 percent, a 50 percent reduction that Schnirman said would result in a savings of $64 per home, bringing the increase down to $62 per household. Still, the addition of the Superblock surcharge means a combined increase of over 6 percent.

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