Albany

City lawmakers on Monday fought off a bid to repeal Albany's unpopular new trash fee on small apartment buildings just three months after they adopted it to help close the city's $18.5 million budget gap.

The Common Council defeated the repeal by an 8-5 vote after 90 minutes of withering public comment and sometimes contentious debate, sparing Mayor Kathy Sheehan from having to make good on a promise to veto it.

The repeal would not have impacted this year but would have moved up the law's sunset from the end of 2019 to the end of 2016.

Even opponents of the repeal acknowledged the trash fee is flawed, but they argued it would be irresponsible to scrap it now without a plan to replace it.

City budget director Rachel McEneny welcomed the vote as a step in the direction of the sustainable budget the state is requiring the city to reach as a condition of a $12.5 million lifeline this year.

"The governor in his executive budget indicated that we must engage in developing a comprehensive long-term financial plan," McEneny said. "This is a step forward in identifying sustainable revenue streams that are essential to getting Albany onto sound fiscal footing. Repealing the fee at this point would have injected uncertainty into the budget process."

Councilwoman Cathy Fahey said she worried the repeal might jeopardize the $12.5 million, which the Republican-led Senate has not yet agreed to provide.

But the repeal's sponsor, 11th Ward Councilman Judd Krasher, said the eight council members who blocked the repeal "should be ashamed of themselves" for supporting a fee that he said unfairly targets low-income renters while sparing single-family homeowners.

The $180 annual per-unit fee applies to the second, third and fourth units in buildings with up to four apartments. Because the first unit is free, single-family homeowners don't have to pay it.

"A fiscal crisis does not justify discrimination," said Krasher, who suggested he might defect from the all-Democrat council's Democratic caucus over it. "That's not progressive policy-making."

Arbor Hill Councilman Ron Bailey blasted the formula as not just economically unfair but racially discriminatory because it disproportionately impacts the largely minority lower wards.

"It's discriminatory, and it's racial because it's put upon the lower wards and the minority people," Bailey roared. "We don't come out to vote, so they figure they can walk all over us."

Two council members were absent for the vote -— President Pro Tempore Richard Conti, who sponsored the initial trash fee legislation on behalf of Sheehan, and 1st Ward Councilwoman Dorcey Applyrs, who left Monday before the vote was taken. Applyrs voted against the fee in January.

Resident Alfredo Balarin, who faces $540 in trash fees between his two properties, said he doesn't like the fee — especially with the city's recent property reassessment and the potential for a tax hike from a new $180 million high school. But he opposed the repeal without an alternate plan.

"You can't just make people feel good because you're repealing a fee if you don't tell people what you're going to cut," Balarin said.

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com