Mayor Michaels Explains Anticipated Proposed Budget Changes During Common Council Meeting

by Kassadee Bradshaw | December 2, 2020 1:28 pm

FULTON – At last night’s Common Council meeting, members of the public were able to express their thoughts on the proposed city budget for 2021.

Before the public hearing began, Mayor Deana Michaels said she has plans to further review the budget again and cut it down more by the time it is voted on at the next meeting, December 15. 

At the time of the meeting, the tax rate for the proposed budget is $20.64, as opposed to the 2020 tax rate of $20.498. This would call for an increase of $0.14 per thousand assessed value, so Michaels decided to tackle a large expense – the medical health care benefits for city employees. 

“Fulton, New York, and the taxpayers of Fulton, New York, cannot afford to continue to move in this direction,” Michaels said. “So we’re going to look at these contracts long and hard… I think we can do better and I think we are going to.”

Hospital and Medical Insurance (A.9060.8000) is currently budgeted for an increase of $389,927 for next year. The budget for 2020 gave this account $3,172,784 and 2021’s budget at this point is proposed for $3,562,711.

Michaels expressed her dissatisfaction with the health plan.

“Our medical plan is so rich, it’s the Cadillac plan,” Michaels said. “It is so rich, we cannot get other companies to even bid when we put it out there, because they don’t want it – it’s too much of a liability. That’s unacceptable.”

 In addition to asking the department heads to make some more cuts, she is aiming for a different health insurance plan. With these changes, Michaels said she plans for there to be about a 0.2% decrease in the tax rate. Just with the change in the health care alone, Michaels said that would result in a 0.16% tax decrease. 

With the mayor’s anticipated change to the proposed budget, there were no strong objections to the budget. However, there were a few questions of clarification in specific accounts. 

“[Mayor Michaels] took the wind right out of our sails and we thank you for that,” resident Frank Castiglia said. “That’s what we like to see… We have to make sure that your expenses have to be lowered before you raise the taxes.”

Michaels made a note of explaining that the city has no plans of eliminating employee positions, but they have rather been thinking more creatively. 

She also said that there will be a city-wide reevaluation, but with respect to the current climate, it will be stretched out through 2021 and take effect in 2022. She said there will be sessions for the public to weigh in and ask questions.

“It’s such an important process and if we rush it within a couple months, we’re going to get what we ask for; it’s going to be rough and it’s going to be sloppy,” Michaels said.

The full budget[1] is available to the public on the city’s new website and any updates are included in real time. This is a new way of presenting the budget to the public. Michaels said next year the city plans to start working on the following year’s budget throughout 2021 and the budget will be able to be seen each day of the year. 

There will be another public hearing on the proposed budget’s changes during the meeting on Tuesday, December 15 at 7 p.m. in the Municipal Building. Due to time constraints, the council will be voting on the budget following the public hearing. 

All items on the agenda[2] were approved.

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/news/fulton/mayor-michaels-explains-anticipated-proposed-budget-changes-during-common-council-meeting/

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