Cities across New York have been facing financial difficulties in recent years.
One of them is the city of Albany, which received the worst stress score of any municipality by the state Comptroller’s Office in its annual report at the end of September. According to the Comptroller’s Office, the city has a projected deficit of $26 million for this year and $35 million for 2027.
The city is now going to have to borrow more money in order to pay its employees for this year.
There have been questions about whether the city has enough cash on hand for balloon retirement payments and to fund the city’s payroll through the end of the year.
The city of Albany Treasurer’s Office will now be issuing a $10 million revenue anticipation note, or RAN, to cover expenses, including paying city employees. The notes are dated Nov. 24 and are due Feb. 24, 2027. Albany City Treasurer Darius Shahinfar explained why the RAN was needed.
“Part of the problem is that our revenues that are anticipating the budget don’t always come in when we want them to come in,” Shahinfar said. “A big one, usually, is that at the end of the year, we went for the sales tax component to come in. And that doesn’t come until January.”
Shahinfar said that it’s a situation they’ve been monitoring, and while they were hopeful the RAN wouldn’t be needed…
“We feel it’s necessary to make sure that we’re safe and that we can do everything, meet our obligations for the city,” Shahinfar said.
City Councilmember Deirdre Brodie agrees. She says the 1,400 city employees need to be paid, but she has a lot of questions. According to Brodie, the City Council was not notified of the RAN and learned about on the public financial advisors’ website. She said she’s known this was a possiblity since the end of last year, but said based on previous knowledge there’s still a bit of shock.
“The Q2 report is the last one he’s provided to either us or the public,” Brodie said. “That was provided in September. And there’s a direct quote in there that basically says, if we continue as we are managing our cash balances and reducing expenses, we might actually be able to avoid this situation.”
Brodie also says that the Treasurer’s Office missed the deadline by over a month with the most recent cash on hand report.
“Consistently late reporting and reporting that happens, you know, after hours, without additional footnotes,” Brodie said. “I don’t think is signaling to at least the City Council, if not the general public, that we have a strong handle on the situation. And that we have the right sort of lens around accountability and transparency.”
According to a statement from Mayor Dorcey Applyrs’s office, “Per Treasury’s decision to issue a RAN for end-of-year cash management, we will continue to work with Treasury and the Common Council to get the city on strong financial footing. That includes working with the Common Council to adopt a soundly balanced budget for 2027.”
The mayor’s proposed budget includes a 15% property tax increase and the creation of a 0.5% city-wide sales tax. Discussions on the proposed budget are set to continue this week at the Common Council’s Finance, Assessment, and Taxation Committee meetings Monday and Tuesday.
Source: spectrumlocalnews.com
