BEA Budget Workshops This Week
For those following the crafting of the city budget for 2025, here are the BEA budget workshops scheduled for the coming week. BEA stands for Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and it is made up of the mayor (Kamal Johnson), Common Council president (Tom DePietro), and city treasurer (Heather Campbell). The workshops are hybrid, taking place in person in the Council Chamber at City Hall and on Microsoft Teams. Click on the department name to find the link to join the workshop remotely. - Wednesday, October 9
- Friday, October 11
Couple of observations:
ReplyDelete1. Does anyone else find it funny that, for investors and beancounters like CFOs, "BEA" normally refers to the Bureau of Economic Analysis... which literally tracks things like GDP, trade balance data, consumer trends etc.
2. So on that note.. is the Hudson City Budget going up or down? Or where are we getting this extra incremental increases/decreases in tax revenue every year? 🤔
We could not find any annual letters or write-ups from the Mayor detailing where the city is increasing or decreasing our tax expenditures, and how this aligns with stated goals and voter mandates. Did we miss it or is there a Facebook group we can follow?
3. Gossips, may we ask who started calling these sessions "workshops"?
We understand that the public and other Common Council members are not allowed to speak at these particular workshops... yet workshop normally refer to a "meeting at which a group of people engage in intensive discussion and activity on a particular subject or project."
Or do we have it wrong and tax payers can indeed participate in the workshops?
In answer to a couple of your questions:
Delete(2) Each year, the mayor presents the budget to the Common Council. This happens sometime in November. Along with the budget, the mayor delivers the "budget message." The message becomes part of the minutes for the meeting at which the budget is presented. You can find the budget message for 2024 here: https://cms3.revize.com/revize/hudsonnynew/Common%20Council/Minutes/2023/sm%20november%209%202023.pdf
(3) The sessions are called workshops because the BEA works with the department heads to craft the budget. The department heads present their budgets to the BEA, and the amounts proposed are discussed, justified, and sometimes reduced to arrive at the final budget. The public's involvement happens at the public hearing on the budget.
Got it, thank you so much Gossips.
ReplyDeleteSo if a resident wanted to speak to City Hall and elected leaders to ask A) about a current expense and B) a change in expenses or budget, where should they go if not these meetings?
Go to the meeting when the budget is presented, which will happen next month; go to the public hearing which precedes the Council vote on the budget.
DeleteThanks Gossips.
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that... as but one example... a single parent living in Hudson and working in Albany or New York... would have a very hard time keeping track of all these meetings, attending them in person, and then having a voice and vote in local governance and taxes.
Ours is a representative government. The single parent living in Hudson and working in Albany or New York votes for the people who represent them in city government. That's the way it's supposed to work.
DeleteNot to belabor the point, dear Gossips, but what if the people who represent them do not answer emails, hold office hours / constituent meetings, and change votes without the facts changing.
ReplyDeleteSee for example the Restore Grant special votes.