POUGHKEEPSIE – The City of Poughkeepsie has been dealing with an enormous financial crisis originating with the previous administration and the pandemic has diminished progress that Mayor Rob Rolison and the council have made to restore financial security.
Last week, the governor informed cities across the state that he was withholding 20 percent of the anticipated Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) funding that was due to arrive in December. For Poughkeepsie, operating without a fund balance caused by the previous administration has caused a crisis. With Albany withholding nearly $800,000, the city’s budget is unstable.
On Tuesday evening, the Common Council’s Finance Committee, chaired by veteran lawmaker Chris Petsas, received an update on the situation from Mayor Rolison, City Administrator Marc Nelson, and Brian Martinez, commissioner of Finance. Fellow councilmembers Yvonne Flowers and Evan Menist participated while two others were absent.
Lawmakers learned from Martinez that sales tax revenues from Dutchess County are still “pretty steady” and property tax receipts are “pretty solid” but year-end losses are estimated to be $2.6 million. Rolison said that regardless of the deficit, he would make every effort to avoid layoffs and furloughs for city employees. Rolison said that he would shoulder the blame for increasing the deficit while maintaining the city’s workforce and services to taxpayers.
Nelson laid the blame directly on Albany for the new burden. “The AIM withholding has been seen as likely for some time, but coming as it does with just two weeks left in the fiscal year, it presents enormous challenges for the city because we do not have a fund balance as do our sister cities, surrounding towns and counties. My own opinion is that the handful of cities throughout the state which have been designated ‘significantly fiscally stressed’ by the Office of the State Comptroller might have – should have – been made exceptions to the withholding plan, but that was not to be.”
Petsas commended Rolison for calling the meeting. “I thought it was a good meeting. Informative. Not what I wanted to hear but what we needed to hear. We have some difficult choices. But we will get through this.” The first ward representative took a moment to educate newer members of the council that the city has made progress. “It’s very unfortunate that we are where we are, but I remember when it took days, weeks, or months to have problems addressed under recent years and we can’t afford to go backward,” said Petsas.
Rolison noted that when the withholding was announced late last week, he told Mid-Hudson News that the $800,000 withholding would bring the total to $1.8 million bit “I misspoke. Our team had minimized the shortfall and had eliminated $1 million. We are still in a deficit, but our staff is still fighting,” said the mayor as he apologized for announcing the wrong numbers.
The common council will convene Thursday to vote on Rolison’s proposed 2021 budget.
