Thanks to a $20.7 million dollar one-time allotment of state aid, the Mayor unveiled a Rochester city budget for next year with less spending, and flat taxes.
"We're at a position right now, with the support that we received from the state of New York, to be able to hold the tax levy flat,” said Mayor Lovely Warren.
She told WXXI her second budget responds to what people who live in Rochester asked her to include during a series of public meetings seeking their input.
The proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins in July totals $501.6 million. It's down two million dollars from last year, and holds steady the tax levy, or the total amount of taxes raised.
For the average city home assessed at about 70-thousand dollars, the budget proposal calls for $23.79 more in taxes and fees. Taxes go up slightly to pay for a new city veterans tax credit.
City Budget Director Chris Wagner outlined the service fee increases: "2.1% in water, or about $7.56; 1.9% in refuse, or about $7.00; and 1% in local works, about $2.23."
The additional state funding helps the city pay for many improvements.
"$13.3 million for infrastructure improvements, including such things as residential street work, milling and resurfacing work and hazardous sidewalk replacement. And 7.4-million dollars in technology and development, including body cameras, play apparatus and telephone and computer network improvements," said Wagner.
Mayor Warren says the city will continue to tell its story in Albany in hopes of obtaining additional funding next year, but she is grateful for help erasing a projected 34-million dollar budget gap.
"I am so thankful for them because we would be in a very different position had it not been for our state delegation, the Speaker of the Assembly as well as the governor. So we appreciate their support."
The Mayor says many of the budget priorities were suggested by people who live in Rochester during open meetings seeking their input.
"They wanted body cameras. They wanted investment in our recreation centers. They wanted us to keep Durand Eastman Beach open. They wanted safer neighborhoods. They wanted jobs and they wanted more educational opportunities for children."
The budget calls for more LED streetlight to save on the electric bill, and fire and police recruiting classes. It also helps the city tear down more abandoned housing, mow vacant lots and add playground equipment.
The budget calls for a net gain of 11 jobs.
City council reviews the plan and votes next month.