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Ithaca Common Council passes 2025 budget

This budget season has been defined by concerns over rising taxes and possible city service losses.
Aurora Berry
/
WSKG News
This budget season has been defined by concerns over rising taxes and possible cuts to city services.

The Ithaca Common Council passed the city’s 2025 budget Wednesday night. The final budget came out to nearly $108 million, up from around $101 million the previous year.

The new budget raises the tax levy, or the amount of money collected from property taxes, by over 8%. That increase will translate into higher taxes for many property owners.

Nine council members voted in favor of the budget. Alderpersons Margaret Fabrizio and David Shapiro voted against it.

Fabrizio said she could not vote in favor of a significant increase to property taxes.

“I really see us in a crisis moment as a city because five years ago, 10 years ago, people said it was expensive to live here, but it was way more manageable than it is now,” Fabrizio said before the budget vote.

Alderperson Clyde Lederman voted in favor of the budget, although he said he was also disappointed with tax increases.

“I think it represents unfortunate costs that we need to bear," Lederman said, adding that the costs are "necessary to support our staff and to support our communities."

Proposed cuts voted down and withdrawn

Council members submitted five amendments before the meeting began that, altogether, would have shaved $945,069 off the final budget, according to their sponsors. None of them were approved.

One amendment was disqualified for procedural reasons. Three more were withdrawn by their authors, including one that would have cut $250,000 in capital project funding for the Greater Ithaca Activities Center’s Red and White Cafe. The cafe is going to be part of a teen-run catering program facilitated by the community center.

Several activity center employees who showed up to the public comment period, reiterated the importance of the community center’s work with Ithaca youth.

Tompkins County Legislator Travis Brooks, who is also the activity center’s deputy director, told the council that investments in the wellbeing of kids and teens today are really investments in Ithaca’s future.

If you don't take care of young people, if you don't connect them, if you don't give them community, if you don't give them people they can connect to, if you don't give them jobs, if you don't help them develop their passions, they become the people that we're trying to help now,” Brooks said.

The amendment was sponsored by alderpersons Fabrizio and David Shapiro. Fabrizio withdrew the amendment, saying she wasn’t aware that the money from the city was necessary for the activity center to receive other external grants.

An amendment that would have delayed funding for seven police officer positions also failed. The amendment, submitted by alderpersons Kayla Matos and Phoebe Brown, was estimated to cut around $400,000 from the budget.

The amendment failed in a 3-8 vote, with alderpersons Brown, Matos and Shapiro voting in favor of the proposal.

Withdrawn Amendments

Over the weekend, the council released a round of budget amendments that included measures to defund several staff positions.

The amendments defunding those positions were submitted by Alderperson Shapiro, who withdrew them late Tuesday night. He told the Ithaca Voice that he regretted suggesting them.

The amendments would have defunded a city attorney, a superintendent of Public Works, a deputy director of Public Works, and a deputy director position at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, among other positions.

Despite the retraction, some city staff said the amendments send a clear message.

Ithaca’s director of sustainability, Rebecca Evans, who spoke during the public comment period, said the amendments represent a pattern of disrespectful behavior.

“Despite the combined decades of commitment made by these staff members, a half-baked proposal threatened to fracture the bedrock of their professional and their personal lives,” Evans said.

Senior city staff from different departments also spoke out against the amendments.

Several council members apologized to staff later in the meeting.

Updated: November 14, 2024 at 4:58 PM EST
This story was updated to include more information about proposed and withdrawn amendments.