Syracuse’s newly-elected city auditor is trying to make the case for an increase in state aid after funding has remained flat for more than a decade. Alexander Marion’s first report analyzes the impact of state’s Aid and Incentives to Municipalities, or AIM funding on the city. He says Syracuse’s allocation has been stuck at $71 million since 2012, when he began a stint working in City Hall under Mayor Stephanie Miner. Since then, Marion says the city’s budget has grown nearly 23 percent.
“But that's not profligate spending. That's the basic cost of running a city," Marion said. "Rising cost for materials and equipment and inflation is impacting us. So do state mandates for the rising cost of labor agreements, pension and healthcare expenses.”
Marion says the city’s pension obligations alone have jumped 35 percent in 12 years. He says even a small increase in aid would be helpful.
“A 2% increase for the city of Syracuse in our aim aid would yield about $14 to $15 million that would go a long ways," Marion said. "That would be a little over half of what our structural deficit is. That kind of increase would deliver real results for putting more services on the ground here.”
Marion contends the state clearly has the money. Its budget has ballooned from $133 billion in 2012 to a proposed $233 billion this fiscal year.
Senator Rachel May is among the those in the state legislature pushing for more state aid as they negotiate this year’s budget.
“When there's just flat funding they have, in my experience, treated that as a as a gift that they're not cutting it," May said. "They present that as you should be glad. But in the case of AIM funding where it is so tied to the expenses of these services, flat funding is a cut.”
May says she and Marion have a formula she’s proposing in the senate that would deliver aid proportionate to the lack of revenue from city land that’s off the tax rolls. May points out, though, that New York City doesn’t receive similar state support, so she says it’s difficult to get the city’s state legislators to advocate for an increase for upstate cities.
