In Hudson government, the Common Council has the power of the purse. The Council must approve the city budget and pass resolutions to accept donations, pay the monthly bills, commit the city to expenditures, approve change orders, issue bonds and incur debt, and dip into the fund balance to cover unanticipated expenses and close budget gaps. Since the Council approves endless budgetary decisions, one hopes councilmembers are paying attention and have the courage to raise a red flag when it looks like things may be getting out of hand.
This is the situation that exists in Hudson now. Given the number of projects happening in the city that are reliant on grant funding, the requirement to pay for those projects upfront and be reimbursed, the need to borrow the money to make the upfront payments, and the uncertainty about when (or if, when it comes to federal funding under the current administration) reimbursement will happen, it seems the City is sailing rather close to the wind, particularly since information shared by the city treasurer at the informal Council meeting on April 8 suggested that, when all the numbers are in for 2024, there may be less than $2 million in unrestricted funds left in the City's fund balance.
As a resident and homeowner in Hudson, I am grateful for members of the Common Council who are being vigilant and concerned about the City's fiscal future as nondiscretionary costs (health insurance, raises dictated by union contracts) continue to rise and a possible recession looms. Our mayor, however, takes a different approach. This is what he posted today on Instagram.
🤡 Childish mayor: asks a colleague to resign in the, checks notes, comments of another person's Facebook post.
ReplyDelete🧍♂️Mature mayor: addresses the bankruptcy issue directly in the appropriate venue.
😇 Common Sense mayor: invites public dialogue, actually attends the finance meeting, and leads a public discussion with the BOE to take into account residents' well founded concerns about a $1m annual budget deficit in the context of an unprecedented tariff war, high interest rates, and a NY State budget under threat.
Another instance of our mayor fumbling in the dark. It wasn't any member of the council that started the narrative.
ReplyDeleteThe narrative meanwhile remains true even if the actual 2024 deficit may be $700k lighter than initially assumed. It's sizable and in the best case scenario, bankruptcy will now happen in 2027, a year later.
As always, FNI is right in pointing at the uncertain fiscal outcome of 2025. The treasurer herself stated in Monday's Finance Committee meeting that the city must find new sources of revenue.
No doubt that with Tom and Kamal, we have our best men on it already.
Ok, so let me get this straight. Asking questions and showing concern for the financial health of the city, especially when you’re the chair of the Finance Committee, is worthy of resignation?
ReplyDeleteAlso, does the mayor ever respond with a well thought out statement on the state of the city and his vision of the future? Does he have any clear arguments to counter the narrative and platforms put forth by the other mayoral candidates or the current charter reform movement? If so, please share. All I ever see him do is share other people’s thoughts on Facebook or a comment on a perceived friendly newspaper article, usually accompanied by a few “lols” demonstrating the slam dunk he thinks it is.
You first, Kamal.
ReplyDeleteOh look... Vision Statement and a plan to get Hudson back to 10k residents:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.spearformayor.com/the-vision
It will be interesting to see if Kamal will debate the other mayoral candidates.
Also - Kamal does not have an online resume or LinkedIn. Has he ever held a job outside of 12534?
Not being mean... just genuinely could not find any information about it... and Kamal did not answer written inquiries.
What's the point? How does adding more people benefit anyone living here? More people means more cars, more noise, more pollution, more crime, more house fires, more garbage. Smaller is better.
DeleteShouldn't local politicians be representing the interests of those who live here now, not thousands of people who live elsewhere, but who would appear in some fantasy future vision?
It's funny how people who move here to escape the congestion in other places are so eager to promote development and expand urbanity here. If people really want to live in a place with more congestion, there are plenty of places to move to. You don't even have to drive that far.
What a weird take. There comes a point in demographic decline where the thing that you happen to care about gets cut because there's not enough demand or funding for it. If that's what you want, just sit it out long enough - on its current trajectory, it won't be too long before we're there.
DeleteHudson being a city, with all of its services that that entails, is not a God-given. It requires work to maintain this. If you don't believe it, visit any county seat in Western-Pennsylvania. By your measure of smaller is better, there is hardly a city more successful than Butler, PA.
At this point, can anyone truly tell the difference between the mayor and the president of the US? Both are policy neophytes who make their most profound public statements through social media.
ReplyDeleteBut, all joking aside, who expects a thoughtful, reasoned or respectful anything from the mayor when what's being discussed isn't precisely what he wants? He's a man-sized child in this regard.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete