The acting president of the Syracuse Common Council is defending last week’s unanimous vote approving across-the-board budget cuts in the face of strong criticism from the Walsh administration.
Councilors trimmed $16 million from the Walsh Administration’s proposal, eliminating a property tax increase and reducing the draw on city reserves. Pat Hogan said they’re willing to meet with the mayor as he decides whether to accept or reject the council’s amendments.
“If there's any other further conversations, we'll do that in conjunction with myself and the finance chair," Hogan said. "We'll talk to the mayor. We’re open to anything as far as conversation goes, that doesn't mean we're open to changing what we already did.”
Councilors reduced police and fire budgets by about five percent, and most other departments between seven and nine percent. Department heads like Deputy Codes Commissioner Jake Dishaw said the cuts are impractical considering how often councilors call him with constituent needs.
“All these district councilors that hit me up all the time 'I need this done. I need that done. I'm getting complaints about this,'" Dishaw said. "I won't have the resources to answer to get that done anymore. It will be gone.”
Hogan is a district councilor and is also seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor. Despite the potential consequences of the cuts, Hogan said the council remains unwavering.
“We put a lot of work into the budget we did over 45 budget hearings. We've had individual conversations with each other. We've done a lot of diligent work on it, especially our finance chair. We stand by that budget, yes.”
The Walsh administration has until Monday to accept the council’s plan, veto it, or hammer out another agreement. A budget needs to be in place by the first week of June.
