A budget of more than $19.7 million for a city with a population of fewer than 6,000 works out to $3,412 per person. Wondering if that per person cost was typical, Robert Rasner decided to compare the budgets and populations of other cities in New York State, and he generously shared his findings with Gossips. Rasner's research shows that of all sixty-two cities in New York, Hudson ranks sixth in per person spending. The chart below gives the data for the fifteen cities with the highest spending per person. A chart showing the data for all sixty-two cities can be found here.
Among cities with a population of fewer than 10,000, Hudson has the highest per capita spending, exceeding the next highest in per capita spending by more than $1,000.
Rasner will be presenting his findings at the public hearing on the budget tomorrow night. The hearing takes place at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall. The proposed 2025 budget can be found here. The link to join the meeting remotely can be found here. Hudson residents are encouraged to attend, either in person or virtually.
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It’s too bad that the Owl video camera tends to focus on the George Washington portrait above the dais where the council president sits. Anyone watching the meeting online will miss out on the eye rolls Tom will surely give when Rasner presents these stats.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, this is insane. The current regime has increased the city’s spending by 33% in just 5 years!!! All while the population has slightly declined!
What do expect to happen when we see a possible jump in population in the near future, after the opening of the Galvan Luxury Lofts and the other mega projects in the pipeline?
As I’ve mentioned before, the people who have purchased properties since 2019 and are overpaying on property taxes from their unequal tax assessments have been mostly footing the bill for the budget increases. What happens when the next city wide reevaluation happens and the rest of the property owners are forced to catch up? Bye bye middle class. Bye bye rental stock when landlords are forced to sell the last of the multi-family houses because their taxes went up by 50-120% and Good Cause Eviction limits their rent increase to 10%. All of those houses will get converted to single family mansions. They’ll be the only ones left who can afford it.
At least we’ll have the replacement of Bliss Towers… Nope, Trump will probably gut HUD and that may not happen either. Hold on to your hats.
As the kids say, we’re cooked.
100% Agree
DeleteHousing/Rent Affordability Is Driven By:
ReplyDelete1️⃣ National supply and demand dynamics
2️⃣ Construction costs
3️⃣ Interest rates
4️⃣ Land availability
5️⃣ Zoning regulations
6️⃣ Property taxes
Hudson and Kamal can't control points 1, 2, 3 and 4; however, all four have contributed tremendously to the housing crisis over the last decade.
Local leaders, however, can control 5 and 6.
And of course Hudson's Mayor and political appointees took an uncommon and unwise approach with points 5 and 6: they created zoning uncertainty and delays, and raised current and future taxes.
📈 Higher taxes = higher rent and cost of homeownership.
📚 Someone should write a case study on this political and fiscal malfeasance to be taught at public administration schools.
What can possibly explain why Hudson's costs are so high? I know; let's hire another consultant to figure it out!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting and instructive to note that 4 of the 5 cities with higher spending per person than Hudson are located in Westchester County. Pick any city, town or village in all of Westchester, including those 4 shown above, and the residents living there will have a much easier and cheaper time of getting rid of their garbage than we do. Every friggin' week.
ReplyDeleteNo municipalities in Westchester charge their residents to dispose of trash or recycling -- those costs are covered by taxes! NO one is buying trash bags from a sidewalk vending machine, because there are none. In fact, just about every municipality in Westchester has TWO garbage removal days per week -- one for bags full of trash, the other for as much bulk trash as you want to put at the curb to have removed to a landfill. It will all be removed without question.
Here in poor old little rich Hudson, the revenues from the sale of our blue bags, not our taxes, go toward DPW's removal of our solid waste. It's a big red flag that in Hudson you either hire a private trash hauler to take away your garbage or you purchase a blue garbage bag from a city vending machine on the sidewalk in front of City Hall, fill it, put it out on the curb or in the alley and then and only then will a city garbage truck with a crew of 3 men come to remove it. Then you repeat. Bulk trash? Sorry, no, DPW will ignore it for months in the alley and not ticket anyone for it. Take it to the Columbia County dump and pay $150/ton to drop it off if you can.
Either someone is stealing money at City Hall or a portion of tax revenues are finding a way through a crack somewhere to nowhere. Or, as I am certain, City Hall just loves to spend money wastefully. Or all of the above.
Can't wait to hear Kamal respond to some questions about the tax increase. The circus continues.!