Mayor Malik Evans’ 2023-24 budget proposal would make new investments in policing, halve the Police Accountability Board budget, and create a new position to manage initiatives around homelessness, cannabis, and food access.
Evans released his $674.7 million proposal on Friday. The tentative budget is 4.7% higher than last year’s city budget, but it does not increase the amount of money raised through property taxes. But homeowners will pay more due to a state-mandated change in how cities tax higher value properties such as commercial buildings and lower value properties such as houses.
For a house valued at $87,9000, the tax bill would increase by $70.32. The average business valued at $300,000, meanwhile, will see a decrease of $534.52. Under the plan water fees would also increase — a house valued at $87,900 would pay $33.40 more annually.
Mike Burns, director of the city’s Office of Management and Budget, said the proposal is a balanced attempt to invest in the future of Rochester.
“We’ve managed to put forth a fiscally responsible plan, and the other thing that this plan allows us to do is really invest across the administration’s six key priority areas,” Burns said.
The six key priority areas are public safety, strengthening neighborhoods, building towards a prosperous future, youth development, economic empowerment, and promoting equity, inclusion, and social justice.
An increase for RPD and an emergency director
The 2024 budget is the largest in the city’s history and it proposes its largest police budget ever. Evans’ plan would direct $109.3 million to the Rochester Police Department. That number is the result of years of contract negotiations with the Rochester Police Locust Club. The city and the union settled the contract in January, and the agreement included an $18 million sum for retroactive pay increases and a $4,000 cash payout for officers. The new budget also allocates money for a new recruitment class of 50 officers to fill vacancies in the department.
The budget proposal would also create a Director of Emergency Management position with a salary of $123,300. It would be housed under the mayor’s office, and lead efforts to prevent and respond to disasters and emergencies.
That position, Evans said, was largely spurred by the water main break on Ford Street in December, which led to a boil water advisory for a large portion of the city.
“This one position, I hope, is never fully tested beyond the preventative measures that come with it,” Evans said. “It’s sort of like an insurance policy.”
The budget also continues funding for the Crisis Intervention Services Unit, which includes the Person in Crisis Team, a unit that responds to mental health calls, typically alongside police. But the budget would eliminate three emergency crisis counselors and would add two bilingual emergency crisis counselors, a crisis response coordinator, and a bilingual community support counselor are added.
ARPA spending continues, and a “new initiative” director
The use of federal pandemic relief money has been a key aspect of Evans’s economic development plan. He said the funding “will transform Rochester into a city that inspires hope and delivers opportunity for everyone.”
The funding, which comes from the American Rescue Plan Act, clocks in at $202.1 million and must be allocated by the end of 2024. Evans’ proposal allocates that money across different areas of the budget, including anti-violence initiatives like Advance Peace and the Rochester Peace Collective, social and emotional wellness programs at Rochester R-Centers, and the first two cohorts of the guaranteed basic income pilot program.
That program would provide $500 per month to about 350 Rochester families, broken into two cohorts. The official launch of that program, which was launched by former Mayor Lovely Warren, is expected in the coming weeks.
The budget also creates a new Manager of Emerging Initiatives position. It would be housed under the mayor’s office and would seek to coordinate efforts on critical issues which either are new or have never been prioritized. Among those are cannabis issues, the use of opioid settlement funds, homelessness reduction, and food access programs.
That position comes with a salary of $109,000.
“The person in this job will take those daily challenges I spoke of, often those unexpected challenges which point to a larger, deeper systemic concern, and turn them into long-term opportunities by making sure the services we deliver align them,” Evans said.
