Schenectady mayor outlines financial challenges in state of the city

Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton focused on the city's financial challenges during his State of the City address.

The mayor outlined a series of measures to address expected shortfalls for this year and next.

"We have to exhaust each and every opportunity to try to correct our financial position before we come to the very painful decision of reducing our staff because that will mean real service reductions, too," he said.

The city will freeze hiring for six city jobs, cut overtime for non-emergency workers and freeze non-emergency equipment purchases. The mayor said those cuts would more than offset $236,000 in state aid reductions proposed by the governor. 

But in addition to dealing with current shortfalls, the city faces a $12.8 million budget gap next year, and the mayor called for additional cost cutting measures and revenue boosters. 

He proposed increasing 100 different city fees, including parking fines and building permits. He said the garbage fee would not be included in any increases.

He said final details on how much those proposals would net for the city was unclear, but he said he wants to give them a shot in order to avoid layoffs of city workers. 

Other proposals to raise revenue include seeking authority to charge Union College and Ellis Hospital campuses for the cost of emergency response calls. 

Stratton said that efficiency improvements from a federal grant to study the city's police department, could result in future savings.