POUGHKEEPSIE – Residents and businesses in Poughkeepsie can expect
an increase in their property taxes in the new year as Mayor Robert Rolison
late Friday announced his 2017 city budget.
The tax levy would increase by 16.51 percent from $19.9 million to $23.2
million. The total budget is $85 million. While property taxes will increase,
there will be no hike in fees for water, sewer and sanitation.
Rolison has factored in no layoffs of employees, but a hallmark of the
spending plan is handing the city’s transit system to Dutchess County
government. That proposal was briefly entered under the previous administration,
but the city council rejected it.
Rolison only budgeted for a half-year of operating costs in expectation
that the county will assume control. That, he said, should save the county
as much as $300,000 in 2017, plus the long-term savings in terms of operation,
maintenance and replacement of rolling stock.
Poughkeepsie must bite the bullet because it is facing a negative unassigned
fund balance of $12.6 million.
Rolison, who has been mayor since the start of this year, said previous
budgets “have been so far out of structural balance that even after
cutting $1.7 million from department requests, a sizeable deficit remains
that need to be filled through an unavoidable tax increase.”
The mayor pledged to continue working in partnership with the city council
to develop a final budget for 2017 that is equitable to the city taxpayers
while continuing to provide essential services.
