TROY – A disagreement over garbage fees was not enough to scrap the city’s 2020 proposed budget.

City Council President Carmella R. Mantello sought to freeze the annual fee at $164 per unit in the upcoming budget, saying at Tuesday’s special budget meeting that the 2020 increase to $180 was brought about by “mathematical gymnastics.”

She was unsuccessful in her push to pass a resolution to hold the fee down and the $74.7 million budget was approved by five of the six attending council members. Council member Debra Garrett was absent. Mantello was the only council member to vote no on the budget, saying she felt the trash fee was an “undue burden on the taxpayers.”

“This is unfortunately a constant tax that continues to increase for a service that has not been enhanced,” Mantello said after the special budget meeting. “The increase in the past three cycles has not seen increased service.”

President Pro-Tempore Anasha Cummings said that the increase reflects the change in the re-levy, which was estimated at $500,000 in 2019. That re-levy, a collection of the garbage fee a year late, held the 2019 per household fee down.

In 2020, the anticipated re-levy is only $60,000, forcing the city to make up the $3.13 million needed for trash pickup with a $16 increase per unit.

“It’s simple subtraction,” Cummings said.

While Mantello’s amendment was not approved, Cummings’ amendment was. He successfully secured an increase in the city clerk’s salary from $54,846 to $61,278. The clerk has not had a raise since 2009. Cummings said the salary for that post was not keeping pace with the pay for the deputy clerk who was receiving regular raises. The funding for the raise will likely be pulled from the contingency budget, Cummings said.

Mantello and Councilman Jim Gulli opposed the salary increase. Gulli said he couldn't support the raise because would be paid out of contingency funding, "which is not the right thing to do."

Passage of the budget, which carries a 3.4 percent property tax increase, comes after the state Comptroller’s Office scrutinized the spending plan proposed by Mayor Patrick Madden. Among the state recommendations was one that cautioned the city against borrowing $2.79 million to buy vehicles and equipment.

"We encourage city officials to identify current financing sources for the purchase of equipment and vehicles and to include these financing sources in the general and refuse funds' budgets instead of continually relying on the issuance of debt to finance these purchases," the state audit stated.

The $2.79 million in budgeted borrowing comes on top of $6.8 million borrowed from 2014 to 2019, according to the budget review.

The state reviews Troy’s proposed budgets and makes recommendations under the law that created the Troy Municipal Assistance Corp., which borrowed money to pay off the city's deficits from the 1990s. The city is scheduled to pay the MAC debt off in 2022. Its annual payment is about $6.5 million.

During his first term in office, Madden says he's focused on straightening out the city's budgeting practices. After his re-election early this month, he pledged to continue to do so.

Madden told the Times Union that he thought the state review was a “good report” with comments not “intended as criticism as much as keep your eye on it.”