OSWEGO – Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow presented his 2023 City Operating Budget to the Common Council during last night’s meeting, Monday, August 8. This is the sixth budget offered during Barlow’s administration since 2016.
The proposed budget will once again dismiss an increase in taxes and fees for Oswego residents and businesses alike, while maintaining a consistent, feasible and advantageous operating plan for the incoming year.
A public meeting/budget workshop will be held on Tuesday, August 16, in the Council Chambers to discuss the proposed plan and make any adjustments needed.
The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. with the Police Department, Fire Department and Department of Public Works presenting their annual budget needs for the upcoming year. The meeting is open to the public.
Following is Barlow’s 2023 Budget Speech read aloud to the Common Council during last night’s meeting:
Dear members of the Oswego Common Council,
The proposed fiscal year 2023 operating budget for the City of Oswego NY is hereby submitted for your consideration. In a rather short time and with limited resources, we’ve turned the direction of this community around. Our downtown is amid a true revitalization with more construction taking place and being completed at any one time than any other time in recent memory.
Our Code Enforcement and Building and Permitting program encourages development and investment while restoring our historic neighborhoods and eliminating sources of blight throughout the community.
The Department of Public Works runs lean, but more efficient, effective and capable than ever, doing small to large scale improvement projects in-house allowing us to realize millions of dollars in savings.
The Oswego Fire and Police Departments have more capability than ever, and we’re transforming our waterfront, investing in infrastructure, maintaining our facilities, investing in revenue-generators such as the Hydro-dam, and improving our community all while reducing the cost to tax-payers.
We’ve secured over $40,000,000 in state and federal grant funding, to assist with moving our community forward, adopted a five-year Capital Improvement Plan early on in our administration to ensure smart planning, and we’ve consistently invested in our community in each of our budgets, allowing us to maintain or is some cases reduce the tax rate and cut residential water and sewer fees.
By adopting a return-on-investment driven approach and strategy to city government, like what businesses of all sizes do in the private sector, we’ve been able to reduce the cost to residents while simultaneously moving our community forward.
Our approach works and led to unprecedented growth we are currently experiencing. And the city is in a better financial position today following all the investments we’ve made and the challenges we’ve faced than the day I took office.
The 2023 Budget will continue the trend for the sixth consecutive year. My proposed budget does not call for a tax increase and does not raise any fees on any residents or businesses.
The Federal Governments recent unlimited spending leading to rapid inflation, increasing cost of goods at the grocery store, gas station and every other facet of daily life is putting the squeeze on the purse strings and wallets of all Americans; and may be directing us towards a recession in the not too distant future.
So to raise taxes or fees on businesses following a pandemic amidst such inflation, ahead of a possible recession will only compound the challenges Oswego families and businesses are already facing.
My proposed budget also does not tap the City Reserves, the General Fund or Savings Account to balance. If you go back through the last 20-years, previous Mayors and Councils were notorious for balancing a budget either through a tax increase or tapping the reserve funds to artificially portray a balanced budget.
We have not done that to date during my administration, and we will not be doing that this year. The over $55,000,000 total proposed operating budget allocates nearly $5,000,000 for the Oswego Fire Department, nearly $6,000,000 for the Oswego Police Department, and nearly $7,000,000 to the Oswego Department of Public Works.
Overall the City Budget consists of roughly 54 percent personnel costs, 23 percent contractual obligations, and 14 percent obligated to fringe benefits. The Executive Budget responsibly invests in key areas, with $80,000 in funding to continue our special events, $150,000 allocated for more repairs to the City Hydro dam, and funding set aside to purchase a new snow plow and a new front-end loader to the DPW to maintain our fleet and assist with ongoing and future projects.
The decision is now in the hands of the Oswego Common Council on whether to accept this proposed budget or to amend it by resolution. Any amendments made by the Common Council by resolution to increase or decrease appropriations will affect the proposed tax rate.
If any increase in the tax levy equals five percent or more, the amended budget must be presented to a public referendum in November per local law, and should the Council present any amendment that increases the tax rate without presenting an accompanying amendment to account for or offset the raise, I will veto that single amendment.
Should the amended budget be voted down in the November election, my proposed budget will become by default the 2023 operating budget. I’d like to thank all department heads for submitting rational, responsible budgets that fit with my administrations broader strategy and goals, and our consistent with the vision we have for our community.
City Chamberlain Deborah Coad’s efforts to assist me with this budget are appreciated and I thank her as always for her hard work. I now submit the proposed City of Oswego 2023 operating budget to the Oswego Common Council for consideration.
All resolutions were unanimously passed by the Council. All Common Council meetings are held the second and fourth Monday of every month. The next meeting will be held on Monday, August 23 at 7:15 p.m. To view the full agenda, please click here.
missing or outdated ad config