Every October, the Albany Common Council is presented with a proposed budget to consider for the next year’s operations. This year, the budget required a number of numerical corrections, changing the total proposed budget from $179.6 million to $181.4 million. There were also some issues seen by the council as priorities but not included in the budget. These included increased recreation spending to include soccer field improvements, funding for an affordable-housing study to allow Albany to opt into New York state’s Emergency Tenant Protection Act that was enacted earlier in 2019, and increased spending for senior services from the $26,000 that has remained constant for over a decade. Although the mayor’s budget message states that the budget has allocated funding “to offer additional programming for our senior population,” the council has been unable to identify any lines with additional funding. The council raised concerns about salary disparity issues, with the overwhelming number of employees receiving 1 percent pay increases, while more than 30 mostly high-end employees received 5 percent to 20 percent pay increases. However, the city charter precludes the council from altering any salaries proposed in the mayor’s budget. Preparing any municipal budget is a difficult process. While the city administration spends several months putting each year’s budget together, the council is only afforded approximately six weeks each year to review and make revisions to the budget. It would make more sense to afford the council, through its finance committee, participation in that longer process in which the yearly budgets are put together. Michael O’Brien Albany 12th Ward Common Council member
Source: Letter: Expand council’s role in city budget process – Times Union
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