TROY, N.Y. – Mayor Wm. Patrick Madden today unveiled his Neighborhood Reinvestment 2024 Troy City Budget Proposal: a responsible $112,735,583 spending plan that navigates the post-COVID market challenges facing us all to address our families’ immediate needs while continuing to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods.
“Throughout my tenure, I have consistently demonstrated my deep commitment to the financial health of our City and I have been adamant in my efforts to be fully honest regarding where we stood and the progress being made,” said Mayor Madden. “My overarching goal has been to build a solid foundation upon which could be built a stable government capable of meeting future challenges—something I can proudly say we have accomplished, not only for today, but for Troy’s next mayoral administration.”
The Neighborhood Reinvestment Budget Proposal is comprised of a General Fund ($82,062,198) combined with a Debt Service Fund ($7,279,774) and three Enterprise Fund budgets for Water ($13,931,662), Sewer ($3,980,124) and Solid Waste ($5,481,825).
This Budget represents a 3.66% increase from the Fiscal Year 2023 City of Troy Budget, which concludes on December 31, 2023. The Consumer Price Index, reflecting changes of all market prices over the last 12 months, was 3.7% in August 2023.
Thanks to the responsible fiscal prudence of the Madden Administration, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Budget Proposal is the first spending plan in decades in which the City of Troy did not have to set aside funds to pay down deferred operating deficits, including the now retired Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) Debt and New York State Pension Debt. The City of Troy is using these funds to invest in our future: maintaining safe, reliable water service through The Neighborhood Reinvestment Budget Proposal DPU Restructure Plan; making equitable changes to assessments related to the solid waste fund; and continuing the work of upgrading parks in every neighborhood of the City.
In his annual Budget Message, Mayor Madden wrote to City Councilmembers, “As we approach the upcoming fiscal year, we have every reason to be hopeful for the future of our City. I am confident that this is a fair plan for the City's taxpayers and residents.”
Mayor Madden also thanked the City workforce, Comptroller Andy Piotrowski, Deputy Mayor Chris Nolin, and City department heads, who have “labored to develop and refine their department budgets to keep within financial constraints while still meeting demands and providing excellent services.”
Read Mayor Madden’s full Budgetary Message.
Water & Sewer Funds
The Department of Public Utilities (DPU) is showing the strains of increasing regulatory oversight, aging infrastructure, demands on our systems arising from increasing development—largely from outside of Troy—and a staffing structure that is insufficient to meet these growing demands. DPU, the Madden Administration and Troy’s City Council have an ethical and contractual responsibility to the 140,000 customers across three counties who depend on DPU every day for reliable, potable water.
Rather than abdicate this responsibility, the Madden Administration is leading with action. The Neighborhood Reinvestment Budget Proposal includes a modest water rate increase of $0.40/1000 gallons to help fund the forward-looking DPU Restructure Plan. This increase amounts to approximately $5.00 per quarter for the average family of four, and is an investmentment in the materials, labor, and infrastructure necessary to improve the quality of Troy drinking water by addressing lead water service lines, calibrating Ph levels, and ensuring we have the staff to meet the challenges of increasing regulations.
As Troy DPU manages a region-leading lead water service line replacement program, the multi-phase Tomhannock water line replacement project, federal and state regulatory compliance related to water quality and dam safety, and much, much more, the task of providing clean water to our homes, businesses and institutions has grown increasingly complicated.
The Neighborhood Reinvestment Budget Proposal’s DPU Restructure Plan would maintain a superintendent position at DPU and reinstate the following three Civil Service Commission-approved UPSEU positions:
The DPU Restructure Plan will result in a more capable and sagacious Department of Public Utilities; one with the capacity to keep up with best practices in an evolving industry while maintaining into the coming generations the high-quality services, exacting potable water standards and emergency response preparedness that our families both deserve and have come to expect.
The DPU Restructure Plan is critical to the DPU’s ability to maintain high-quality services over the long-term to many families across the Region who depend on us to provide safe drinking water from the Tomhannock Reservoir—precisely why the Madden Administration is prioritizing its inclusion in The Neighborhood Reinvestment Budget Proposal.
No change is proposed to the sewer rate for 2024.
Solid Waste Fund
A prominent feature of Troy’s solid waste program is the fee waiver provided for those who are eligible for the State's Enhanced STAR program. This cost of this Enhanced STAR benefit used to be borne entirely by those who purchased garbage services from the City.
As this is a benefit available to all of our residents who qualify, the cost is being shifted in the Madden Administration’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Budget Proposal so that it is borne by all taxpayers in the City—including our wealthiest commercial property owners—as opposed to a select subset. Accordingly, the cost (actually a revenue offset) has been transferred to the General Fund.
The proposed 2024 Garbage Fund budget includes an annual increase of $2.00 per unit per year.
The Solid Waste Fund does not include any costs associated with the Clean Streets program, which was paid for entirely through the federal American Rescue Plan Act. In 2023, the Clean Streets program provided a high-quality, lidded trash barrel to all residents receiving City trash collection service, which has visibly reduced litter in Troy’s streets and alleyways. The program also reduces the risk of injury to Sanitation workers, as work of hauling trash into the collection truck is mechanized.
The General Fund
The General Fund provides for the operations of many Troy Departments, including Streets, Engineering, Parks, Planning and Economic Development, the Bureau of Code Enforcement, and more. The Madden Administration’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Budget Proposal responsibly provides for the continued operation of these crucial city departments without relying on one-shot revenues or deferrals.
The Neighborhood Reinvestment Budget Proposal also invests in represented members of the City workforce, whose important contributions to our City often go unrecognized. CSEA members will receive a 3% raise in this Budget and UFA members will receive a 4% increase. These raises, beyond showing our appreciation, will help us retain the workforce we need to maintain our City and its services. The 2024 budget does not defer any New York State pension contributions; while this has been done in the past, it simply kicks the can down the road leaving future generations on the hook.
In 2024, City workers will continue their work on Madden Administration-Era projects that are modernizing our neighborhood parks—including the opening of Troy’s first municipal pickleball court at Lansingburgh’s 112th Street Park.
Troy workers will also continue working with local stakeholders, government partners and more on transformative Madden-Era neighborhood development projects, like the mixed-use proposal for 1 Monument Square and a revitalization of the Troy Housing Authority’s Taylor Apartments. And they will coordinate projects that Troy facilitated grant funding for, like historic investments in Lansingburgh housing stock, an alliance of youth programming to help leaders provide better youth services across the City, workforce development projects at the Ark and the Tech Valley Center of Gravity.
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