View full sizeSyracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner gestures as she answers a question from a reporter after holding a press conference about the city budget in this photo from May 6. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The latest estimate from Syracuse budget officials shows the city heading off a financial cliff in two years unless something dramatic changes, according to data Mayor Stephanie Miner presented today at a statewide conference.
The city faces a $40 million projected budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2014. And with only $6 million in savings remaining at that point, the municipality is expected to end that year $34 million in the hole.
“There are no more orthodoxies,” Miner said. “What we need to do is get everyone around the table and start sharing sacrifices and figure out how we can avoid going off the cliff.”
Miner was a speaker at the fourth annual Local Government Leadership Institute, a symposium for municipal officials sponsored by the state comptroller’s office. The meeting was held at the Genesee Grande Hotel in Syracuse.
“Well,” said Andrew SanFilippo, executive deputy comptroller, after Miner finished speaking. “Doesn’t that brighten up your day?”
But Miner’s bleak assessment was shared by most of the participants. “The situation that we’re in can feel very much, as Mayor Miner said, like the end of the world,” said Mayor Svante Myrick, of Ithaca, who joined Miner on a panel of speakers.
View full sizeMayor Stephanie Miner warned at a statewide conference today in Syracuse that she expects the city to spend through its surplus and be $34 million in the hole by July 2015. This graphic shows the projected decreases in the city's fund balance.Miner has been warning of the fiscal crisis almost from the day she took office in 2010, but Syracuse's day of reckoning was delayed this year after the state Legislature provided $21 million in extra aid to the city.
When that aid is gone — and Miner said it will not be renewed — Syracuse’s budget will fall so sharply out of balance that the city is likely to burn through its remaining $32 million in savings in little more than a year.
City officials have said they hope to negotiate new union contracts that reduce personnel costs, but Miner pointed out that savings are tough to come by because police and fire unions have the option to skip negotiations and go to arbitration.
Absent other solutions, the city could face significant service cuts in future years, she said.
Contact Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 470-3023.