Last night, the Common Council passed the budget proposed for 2025. There were only two dissenting votes: Margaret Morris (First Ward) and Rich Volo (Fourth Ward). In her comments preceding the vote, Morris crystallized the problem: There is a $1 million gap between the City's anticipated revenues and its expenditures, which had to be made up by taking $800,000 from the fund balance and raising property taxes 1.5 percent. That, she said, was not sustainable. In his remarks at the meeting, Volo spoke of the subsidized housing project being proposed, commenting, "We do not know how much these are going to cost," in terms of the need for increased city services. He also said, "The County sold us out on 11 Warren Street," suggesting that the County should compensate Hudson for the loss of future property tax revenue on the property. Volo's statement of his reasons for voting against the budget can be found on his blog, Fourth Ward Hudson: "Why I'm Voting Against the City's Budget."
Gary Purnhagen (First Ward) said that since the budget hearing last Thursday he has been haunted by this thought: "What does it matter what our house value is if we can't afford to live here?" He declared, "We have to cut taxes," and suggested that the City cut its budget by 20 percent over the next year. Nevertheless, he voted to approve the budget for 2025.
Some interesting information emerged from the meeting. It seems there is $2.5 million in unpaid property taxes that, according to Volo, the City "is not going after." City treasurer Heather Campbell explained that she does not have the authority to hire an attorney to pursue the matter but further commented, "It is hard to find an attorney willing to take on the foreclosure process."
And so it goes.
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Why does the information, short discussion and "explanation" of millions of dollars in unpaid/missing property taxes only come to the attention of the council and the public at a public meeting at the final, budget approval meeting? Because the dysfunction, lack of proper management and unprofessionalism at City Hall is so deep that you can cut it with a knife. Except that no one is willing to cut it out and put an end to it.
ReplyDeleteYou can draw a very direct and short line between the amount of unpaid, ignored-by-city-hall MISSING property tax revenue and all the decrepit eyesore vacant "UNSAFE AND DANGEROUS" houses in the city that seem to have been ignored for years or decades by our CEO and will continue to be ignored in perpetuity, particularly on State Street. "WHAT VACANT BUILDINGS REGISTRY? What thousand dollar fines every year of vacancy?" It's all a result of the same concerning mess at City Hall. Heed what Tom Depietro said a few months ago on the radio when he clearly articulated his feelings and perspective on the city he owns a house in and is supposedly "presiding" over: "I've been saying that Catskill is the place to be." Why would he say such a thing if he didn't believe it? Why should we trust him with Hudson's future? Why does he live here if he is so enamored with Catskill? Maybe Tom Depietro wants Hudson to fail so that he can prove that he was right all along about Catskill. Stranger things have come from municipal officials who appear to be "normal" but hide a whole lot of nasty stuff deep inside.
The last Common Council President of Hudson before Hudson transitions to a City Manager system... Tom DePietro... said at the meeting last night that more public housing would not cost Hudson more money.
ReplyDelete❌ This is false.
If Hudson adds 1000 new residents, whether they pay property taxes or not, we will need more police, there will be more potholes, the Youth Center will ask for more money etc.
Tom, did you misspeak, misunderstand, or were you dishonest?
Please advise.
I would assume if the charter reform goes to a referendum that there would still be elections for the current positions, and then if successful, there would be a transition period, up to a full term. I would hope that we have candidates for all positions who back the reforms and make it their platform to ease the transition and do a candidate search for the city manager. So, hopefully, Tom DP will be the penultimate council president ;)
DeleteBut yeah, that was some A+ gaslighting when he was reacting to Rich Volo’s concerns. How can you increase the city’s population by a large percentage, many who would be high city service demand (low income, seniors, students), and in housing that is mostly exempt from property taxes, and not expect budget deficits? And the comment that the schools would add more students without raising taxes? Laughable! They already raise them the maximum amount annually and that’s with a declining enrollment.
So this has all been a big fat lie then and now I feel deceived: I was told that property taxes are the killer for Hudson residents. But here the cheat code has been revealed: Just don't pay them.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about repercussions - there won't be any because the city doesn't know how to foreclose on delinquent properties.
Raising taxes and borrowing from the fund balance, which isn't defined here as to where that money is coming from and what the future financial implications are, to spend a million dollars that you don't have while not collecting 2.5 million in unpaid taxes isn't a good look. Maybe the city needs a collections committee to send out notices and start collecting some of that money.
ReplyDeleteThe $2.5M in unpaid taxes is alarming. It would be interesting to know how many years this has been accumulated. Every other municipality has figured this out, including the county which holds tax auctions every year or so. It would probably be doing these properties a favor. Like Bill mentioned, they are likely vacant abandoned properties. The owners could be bankrupt entities or deceased. Auctions would help the city two fold: first get the back taxes; secondary benefits would see vacant properties fixed up, providing additional housing and taxes. This is low hanging fruit if I ever saw it
ReplyDelete🗳️ 🔛 When you decide whether to sign the petition for the Hudson Charter Reform and/or vote for it next year…
ReplyDeleteAll you need to know is that Mayor Kamal and Common Council President Tom needed to raise more money to fund the extra $1m in expenditures (outpacing population growth) and so they had to make a decision.
🎓 Let's put ourselves in their shoes and turn this into a real-time public administration case study. Imagine you are the Mayor/CC President.
_________
Q: You have to find money to pay for expenses and promises already made to your constituents. You are also heading into an election year in 2025 and several large projects that form your legacy hang in the balance…
Your options include:
A: Get the money from delinquent tax payers by auctioning delinquent properties ($2.5m plus)
B: Keep expenditures flat (balance budget), or in line with population growth, but invest in your civil staff
C: Raise property taxes on homeowners during the greatest inflationary and housing crises period in modern American history
D: Take money from the City of Hudson (i.e. our collective funds for an emergency) rainy day fund, to make the deficit look smaller than it is and to raise taxes by less than you are increasing expenses.
📋 Answer Sheet:
Reasonable and wise leaders would select option A, and then if that is not enough, proceed to B, C, and D.
Let's compare the Answer Sheet to what our real-world and uncontested election winners actually did:
They started with the least wise and most unfair options and worked their way up from D to C, yet to get to A.
💸 They took money out of your pocket today, and money out of your city's emergency piggy bank tomorrow.
❓Did they ask your permission or opinion?
🙅♀️ Nope.
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👩🏫 This would never happen on the watch of a professional City Manager…. she would have collaborated with the City Treasurer and Department Heads to keep costs down, and then develop and present prioritized options to the 5 person elected Council in a timely fashion.
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Now the real question is why would Kamal (long-time tenant of Galvan) and Tom not go and collect the $2.5m in delinquent property taxes…. and we will return to this question in expanded blog format soon…
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📡 This Common Sense comment was proudly brought to you by our partners SpaceX & Starlink, from Africa, where the annual Hudson Youth Center's budget could have saved 145 to 500 innocent young lives (conservatively) with seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) programs.