Mechanicville

It's payback time.

The outgoing City Council Monday passed a $4.9 million budget that hikes taxes by 17.7 percent. The plan for 2014 also increases penalties on tax-delinquent property owners and makes cuts in equipment expenses, said Jodi Gilheany, who becomes finance commissioner Wednesday.

Higher taxes were required to make up for money the city spent but did not have in its 2013 budget, she said. "The tax increase is so high because there is no fund balance to lower the tax rate," said Gilheany, 54, a Democrat who replaces Democrat Peter Chauvin.

The budget projects a 1.1 percent increase in spending, and brings the city's tax rate to $16.47 per $1,000 of assessed value. Council members Monday defeated a motion to buy a new fire truck. The truck would have cost an estimated $30,000 a year over 20 years, Gilheany said. The full-time budget analyst at Shenendehowa schools helped the outgoing administration assemble the 2014 budget.

While severe, the tax impact did not come as a surprise. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli warned last year of serious accounting problems in the city's finance office. The council passed the 2014 budget two days before Republican Dennis Baker replaces Democrat Anthony Sylvester as mayor. Baker, 65, will be sworn in at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Mechanicville Senior Center.

"I feel very bad, but it had to happen because of the financial shape we're in," Baker said of the budget. "Hopefully, hopefully this will help us get back on the right track."

dyusko@timesunion.com • 454-5353.