Hello, Collar City! This is Issue 11, dated Nov. 21, 2018.

Possible Budget Changes

, I'm sending you TL11 two days early. Surprise! I'll be enmeshed in Thanksgiving stuff for the rest of the week, as I'd suspect many of you will be, too. I'll get back on the regular Friday schedule next week.TL11 has lots of budget news, plus sea shells and dog park stuff. I hope you find a way to enjoy a warm Thanksgiving!

Tuesday night, the city council held another public meeting to discuss Mayor Patrick Madden's proposed 2019 budget. Newly proposed changes, in response to the city council's feedback, to the general fund include:

The appropriation of $19K for SeeClickFix , an online application for reporting non-emergency issues. The city of Albany has long used the platform.

, an online application for reporting non-emergency issues. The city of Albany has long used the platform. The elimination of the $70K grant writer position . The mayor's office will instead add $35K to its consultant services line to hire outside help for pursuing grant funding. (The +/- of this approach was discussed in TL5.)

. The mayor's office will instead add $35K to its consultant services line to hire outside help for pursuing grant funding. (The +/- of this approach was discussed in TL5.) The removal of $10K from the temporary salary line of the assessor's office .

. The addition of nearly $25K in funding for the assistant city clerk for 10 months of next year .

. Deferring the hiring of a city engineer, a position that has long been vacant, until March 1, thus saving $14K .

. Deferring the hiring the extra video clerk for the police department's body-worn camera program (discussed in TL9) until July 1. That might serve as a realistic projection as to when the BWC program will actually start in earnest.

According to a new tax rate calculation distributed at last night's meeting, property taxes will increase by 1.17 percent next year, a slight decrease from the mayor's initial projection

Likely biggest potential budgetary change of all, not mentioned above, is that the city may now end up making initial bond issuances related to both defunct municipal swimming pools, rather than only the South Troy Pool, next year. The five-year capital plan attached to the mayor's initial budget proposal (see TL5) didn't anticipate spending money on the Knickerbacker Pool in Lansingburgh until 2020. The mayor previously told me that his administration intended to focus on the South Troy Pool first "because it's a more affordable option"—extensive repairs, rather than demolition + new construction.



Council President Carmella Mantello proposed this alternative approach. "Since the South Troy pool and Knick pool were both closed at the same time, they should both be re-opened at the same time," she said in an email.



According to rough estimates that the deputy city comptroller provided the council last night, if the council approves bonding issuances for both pools next week, the city would pay (including principal & interest) an estimated $1.8 million over 15 years for South Troy Pool repairs and $5.6 million over 20 years for the Knick Pool demolition and reconstruction.



Here's the projected payback schedule for the South Troy Pool (the chicken scratch is mine; you can ignore it):

For the Knick Pool:

And here's the estimated payback schedule for everything linked to the proposed budget, including the two pools. Some of these items were mentioned in past TLs, like the body-worn cameras and vehicles for various departments. You'll see that the estimated grand total debt load—including both pools, which would account for more than half of it—is just under $12.4 million (to be paid off over two decades).

That chart, of course, doesn't include any other currently outstanding debt. (If you can't see that chart very well, just email me and I'll try to send you a better quality image.)



I asked the mayor about this potential change re: bonding for both pools vs. bonding for just the South Troy pool initially. "I think that's a decision of the council," he said, continuing:

We really have to evaluate the debt load and the resulting potential increase in taxes. We also have to be mindful of the fact that it's more than just building a pool. It's also staffing it. It's also putting money into it each year so we don't get into a situation like we did with the two existing pools, where they became obsolete from neglect. So the cost is greater than just the bonding amount.



There's a lot of work to do yet. We still have to figure out what the pools are going to cost. We're working off of educated engineering estimates. But nobody's really sat down and put a calculator to it to figure out exactly what the cost will be.

I asked more pointedly: Does he take a position as to whether he'd like to bond for the pools concurrently or in a more staggered way? He replied:

It will be easier for us to do the South Troy Pool first, easier on the taxpayers—considerably easier. We also have bonding obligations that are out there that weren't included in tonight's discussion. The seawall is going to hit the general fund pretty hard. The demolition of Leonard Hospital is going to be an expense. Those are things we're already committed to and have to do. We're looking at a failing dam up on Mt. Ida Lake. [...] So, you know, we have these competing interests, and the community has to—you know, like I've said before, I'll do anything the community wants to pay for. But we're going to have to get together and say, 'This costs this, this costs this, this costs this—what do you want to do?' I'm fine with paying more in taxes to get some of these assets, but not everybody is. I have to be mindful of that.

Two budget-related meetings are slated for next week: a final public hearing on Tuesday and a special meeting on Thursday, immediately following a finance committee meeting where all the bonding resolutions will be considered, for a vote to adopt the final product.

