The Rochester City Council has approved the city’s 2027 fiscal year budget, by a vote of 6-3.
The $707 million spending package, which goes into effect July 1, comes at a time when the city is facing fiscal constraints, fueled by rising pension, healthcare, and utilities costs and stagnating revenue. As officials prepared the budget, they had to close a $131 million gap, compared to $108 million last year.
The budget increases the tax levy by 4%, with commercial properties contributing most of the additional revenue. The average homeowner is likely to see a slight decrease in their property tax bill.
In adopting the budget, City Council President Miguel Meléndez said he was concerned that the state didn't up its contributions to Rochester, a longstanding gripe of Mayor Malik Evans. The city received $88.2 million in Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) funding this year, about the same as it has received for years. AIM funding is meant for general use and not any specific purpose or program and serves as the state's way of sharing revenue with municipalities.
Rochester also received $35 million in direct aid to help bridge the budget gap.
“It’s time for Rochester to cry foul loudly and collectively,” Meléndez said. “The state must fix the AIM formula or provide cities like Rochester with its equitable share of resources. Yonkers received an additional $40 million in state aid, an additional $20 million over what they were expecting, without really asking. To me, that’s another slap in the face to our city.”
Meléndez voted yes on the budget, saying his was a vote in favor of the city’s first responders, crisis response team, and union workers.
The budget drew opposition from the Council’s progressive minority bloc, made up of Stanley Martin, Chiara Smith, and Mary Lupien. In voting against the budget, the trio said that it failed to meet the basic needs of the Rochester community.
“While our neighbors face rising housing costs, barriers to mental health care, growing affordability challenges, and persistent economic inequality, the proposed budget fails to adequately alleviate those burdens, and instead funds the highest police budget in the history of the city,” Martin said.
Council also voted against adopting the Rochester City School District’s budget, by a vote of 1-6-2. Councilmembers Mary Lupien and LaShay Harris, both district employees, abstained from the vote, while Councilmember Mitch Gruber voted in favor.
While Gruber’s vote was in favor of the budget, it was less than enthusiastic.
“The narrative in the RCSD’s budget, and I’ve been a broken record with them on this, it’s shameful,” Gruber said. “If you are a parent in the district, as I am, you simply can’t make heads or tails of what they’re spending money on.”
Council’s vote in adopting the school budget is largely symbolic — even though the members voted it down, the city still has to provide the district with funding. The district’s commissioners approved the $1.16 billion spending package in May.
