Mayor: Syracuse Council Still Has Time To Correct Outsourced Cuts

Mayor: Syracuse Council Still Has Time To Correct Outsourced Cuts

Published on May 13, 2025

Op-Ed to Submitted to Syracuse.com by Mayor Walsh

In a special session of the Syracuse Common Council last Thursday, City Councilors passed a blizzard of amendments cutting $16 million in planned spending in every area of city services. The list of the cuts was only posted online at 11 p.m. the night before. There was no other disclosure of what was happening. No public discussion.

The Chambers were packed with scared city workers. Few members of the public were there because the Council's sudden and secretive approach meant most of our constituents had no idea what was about to happen. The process driven by President Pro Temp Pat Hogan, Finance Chair Corey Williams, and Council leadership members Chol Majok and Rasheada Caldwell resulted in a serious breach of government transparency.

In prepared opening remarks, President Pro Temp Hogan said the Council's actions were based on an outside auditor's analysis of the budget. It was a report prepared in about 15 days and delivered exclusively to the Council on April 30. The Council held no public meetings to share the report, but they did hold a secret meeting of the full Council on May 2 to review the findings and make their plan for the vote. Councilors refused to release the report, paid for with taxpayer dollars, until after they already voted on the devastating cuts. It's likely all the secrecy and suddenness was because, as Councilors have recently acknowledged, the negative public response to defunding police, fire and other critical services has been strong and swift.

Developing a municipal budget is a complex and laborious process. It requires a mix of financial expertise and deep knowledge of how city services are delivered. The Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Finance work for many months directly with each department, its commissioner and staff to ensure the budget is effective and realistic. I engage directly with all department heads for months about their budget proposals and push them hard to bring down costs before they are presented to Council.

The Common Council is charged with reviewing and authorizing the annual budget and providing ongoing financial oversight of city spending. Along with enacting legislation and ensuring representation of citizens, it is a fundamental duty we elect Councilors to complete. The Council holds more than 30 budget hearings in public to allow all Councilors time to review and ask questions about each operating department's budget.

The City Charter does not entrust the critical budget decision-making process to an outside consulting firm, let alone one forced to work on a two-week turn around. Bonadio does a fine job as the city's audit firm in verifying our annual books. But make no mistake, they are not intimately familiar with our operations.

To advise on the operating needs of our departments, it appears they merely read the brief activity reports in the city budget. The outside firm did not engage with any department heads and did not ask follow up or clarifying questions of these subject matter experts. Council leadership didn't even assign Bonadio to talk with the Office of Management and Budget or the Department of Finance.

The writers identified "red flags" with areas of concern about city finances. But the reader would have little way of knowing the resulting $26 million in "budget savings and efficiency recommendations" were arrived at in a rushed process driven by Council leadership.

Now I have until next Monday to consider their long list of amendments and respond with objections or vetoes. The Council must act 12 days after that on a final budget. There is a lot at stake. City services. Our neighborhoods and public safety. The jobs of public workers. Fortunately, there is still time to prevent a crisis created entirely by Council leadership.

If the Council opposes a 2% tax increase, it can make targeted revisions to replace the $2.5 million in revenue it would have generated. The Council's amendments failed to recommend any revenue replacements, so that option was missed. My department heads and I are prepared, though, to make expenditure reductions. There is no need, however, to decimate city services with $14 million in additional cuts that are based on an outside analysis and will diminish the public safety and the quality of life for our residents.

The City still faces financial challenges. It is, however, in its best fiscal shape in decades. In partnership with the Council, our Administration has introduced revenue generating measures, is adding to the property tax base with more housing and economic development and is doing everything possible not to cut city services as pensions and healthcare costs increase each year. During my time as Mayor, our fund balance has more than doubled to over $120 million. They are taxpayer dollars hard earned for just this kind of difficult budget year. We can draw on them responsibly without putting the city in fiscal peril.

I stand ready to work this week in partnership with the full Council to understand and achieve Councilors' goals and still not put the city services or our employees' jobs at risk. We've shown during the past seven years that when we cooperate, we can achieve tremendous progress. There's no reason for us to stop working together now.

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