SYRACUSE -- Every city service comes with a price. Safe roads, police protection and firefighters are necessary but can be costly. On top of those bills there are also state mandated costs for Medicaid and pensions. Paying for all those services has become a burden for many cities and as budget gaps get worse, many mayors are wondering who will be the next to fall. Stockton, California recently declared bankruptcy and Scranton, Pennsylvania cut all employees pay to minimum wage after running out of money.
"Just look around the country. You see cities around the country starting to fail. We are going to everything we can not to be there," said Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano after a meeting at Syracuse University on Tuesday.
Spano, along with mayors and budget directors from Rochester, Albany and Utica joined Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner to discuss their very similar budget problems. Solutions are hard to find since municipalities can not pass all of the increased costs the face on to taxpayers. Property tax increases in New York are now capped at two percent but pensions and Medicaid costs have been going up by double digit percentages in some cities.
"It's neither practical or fiscally possible to raise the real estate property tax sufficiently to cover this growing gap," said Rochester Mayor Thomas Richards.
Syracuse mayor Stephanie Miner warned that cities across New York will need to find budget relief soon or they will have to choose between bankruptcy or state control of their finances.
"If nothing changes, if the same trends hold true, you will find every municipality faced with that very dire choice. Sooner rather than later. This is not something for the long term. This is something with immediacy - at least for the City of Syracuse," said Miner.
The mayors at the meeting said they hope there is strength in numbers. They plan to work together on getting state mandated costs reduced. Miner, Spano and Richards also talked about sustainability problems with current pension and Medicaid programs in New York.
