YNN CNY
1/18/12
Chris Whalen
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — A difficult trend has plagued the City of Binghamton over the past few years: Rising costs to health care and pensions combined with little or no increase to revenue and aid.
“It makes putting together a budget in an equitable way that provides quality services for our constituents, but also respects our workforce, very challenging,” said Councilwoman Lea Webb.
When a major portion of the budget is devoted to payments to the state, council members say those services take a major hit.
“When your constituents ask you why the roads are so bad, ‘why are we cutting police, why are we cutting fire and you’re raising my taxes at the same time?’ They don’t want to hear that it’s going for health care and pensions, they want to see results,” said Councilman Chris Papastrat.
But now, mandate relief is closer to a reality. In his proposed 2012-2013 fiscal plan, Governor Andrew Cuomo is calling for aid that would save $1.2 billion over five years in Medicaid costs and $79 billion over 30 years in pension costs. Reform that will ease the burden on local governments and help them to meet Cuomo’s imposed two percent property tax cap.
“We know without the mandate relief, the tax cap is not a realistic option, because we’re going in sometimes very close to that cap already,” said Councilwoman Teri Rennia.
The downside: effects from the reform won’t be seen right away, meaning tough times are likely still in the immediate future for local municipalities.
“I anticipate we’re going to see several more years, at least, of budget times, budget processes,” Rennia said.
But with the wheels in motion for mandate relief, lawmakers remain optimistic that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
