The legislature's unanimous passage of the Onondaga County budget Tuesday came with little debate. Lawmakers spent the past few weeks reviewing the $1.7 billion executive spending plan with more than 30 departments. Ways and Means committee chair Maurice Brown said they made minor changes.
“We did not rewrite the budget. Our amendments touch less than 0.06% of the spending plan and add no new net spending," he said. "This budget continues to not increase the tax rate and makes responsible use of our fund balance. We are doing the right things for our residents.”
Lawmakers re-distributed some money to hire six child welfare caseworkers and purchase more vehicles for the sheriff’s department.
But it was actually a last-minute $35 million amendment from the county executive that generated the most discussion. More than two-thirds of those dollars ($25 million) create a revolving loan fund to address middle income housing affordability. The idea was proposed by the legislature's Democratic majority who urged the county executive to include it in his budget. Chairwoman Nicole Watts sponsored the amendment and said it closes gaps to help get projects off the ground.
“You can't get a construction quote to actually start your construction loan until you have architectural drawings, typically," she said. "And so some of those pre-development costs and the large nature of them, especially today, is causing a lot of those projects not to get up and running. And if we can just unstick it, we could see thousands of more units coming online.”
The remaining $10 million supports the semiconductor supply chain, helps farms, and continues the county’s Main Street business corridor improvement plan. Most legislators said they supported the entire package but wished it went through the committee process so they more time for discussion. Legislator Ken Bush was the lone “no” vote.
