Rolison: “… a turning point …”
POUGHKEEPSIE – Mayor Robert Rolison has a little over a week before he must submit his proposed 2017 budget to the Poughkeepsie Common Council. He announced on Wednesday that he has reduced the potential $6 million gap to some $4 million.
“This budget will be painful, but it will also represent the turning-point in the city beginning to address legacy fiscal problems that have been neglected for far too long,” the mayor said.
Rolison explained that prior year’s budgets overstated anticipated revenues, resulting in accumulated deficits. “The use of one-time revenues, or revenue estimates that do not materialize at all, has been a primary driver of our fiscal troubles.”
Among the remaining issues causing the budget gap, the mayor said, are $1.5 million in one-time revenue related to the expansion at Vassar Brothers Medical Center, which is not a recurring revenue in 2017; $250,000 in increased pension costs; $500,000 for the sale of city property, which did not occur in 2016; More than $400,000 in unrealized parking revenues; and an anticipated $1 million in increased health insurance costs.
Rolison has asked all department heads to submit additional recommended cuts of up to six percent of their general fund operating expenses. He will present his budget on Friday, October 14.
In remarks during Wednesday night’s common council meeting, Vice-Chair Natasha Cherry also used the word “painful” to describe this year’s pending budget review.
