2013-2014 budget - City of Syracuse

Onondaga County. State AIM aid will remain at its current level of
$71.8 million and property taxes at $33.5 million.
Other highlights on the revenue side of this proposal
include:
- $2.7 million decrease in PILOT revenues due to contested
changes in property assessed valuations and the termination
of interim annual payments on the Destiny USA expansion
project.
- $575,000 increase in parking ticket receipts due to Paylock
booting
- $1.9 million increase in prior year tax collections including fees
and penalties due to foreclosure actions on tax delinquent
properties
- $200,000 increase in building permits
- $700,000 increase in NYS highway aid for street structures
and pavement improvements
- $335,000 decrease in parking garage revenue due to the early
termination of the Onondaga Tower lease and the sale of the
Sibley’s garage.
- $50,000 increase for an Infrastructure Improvement
Agreement with Crouse Hospital.
- Maintain interfund transfers of $4.3 million from the Aviation,
Water and Sewer Funds.
City Expenditures:
Significant increases in employee and retiree costs for health
insurance, as well as large increases in pension costs are key cost
drivers in this year’s plan and are detailed below.
Departmental Expenditures
The City will see a decrease of $4.1 million or 3.1% in departmental
expenditures from the 2012-2013 budget.
The majority of these savings come from the Police and Fire
Departments. Both departments will be reduced by the amount of
employee vacancies. The Police will save $2.3 million for 42
vacancies and the Fire Department $1.9 million for 38 vacancies. No
layoffs of personnel are scheduled.
The Fire department will also realign and consolidate operations due to
the planned closure of Fire Station #7 located on E. Fayette Street.
The estimated rehabilitation costs necessary to repair this severely
outdated and inefficient fire station are nearly one million dollars.
Pension Costs
The City’s pension bill across all funds is projected to be $33.4 million.
This represents a $4 million increase from the previous year. Both the
State Employee Retirement System (ERS) and the Police and Fire
Retirement System (PFRS) saw double digit contribution increases
which are passed along to the City. Contribution rates range from a low
of 21% for ERS to a high of 33.4% for PFRS. Pension expense was
calculated without the use of amortization currently allowed under the
State’s Pension Stabilization Program. The City currently owes $7
million to the NYS Retirement System for borrowings done in previous
years. Continuing to borrow to pay operating expenses will only add
additional layers of debt and is not a sound fiscal practice.
Heath Care Costs
The City’s health care expenditures for both active and retired
employees continue to rise across all funds. Retiree expenditures are
expected to outpace those for active employees by $5 million. Since
the City is self insured it has no control over the amount or the severity
of medical claims. These costs will continue to rise as active
employees become retired employees and new employees are hired to
replace them. The City spent $40.5 million for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 2012 and is projected to spend $44.1 million in the current
year. The estimate for 2013-2014 is $45.1 million. This budget
includes negotiated health care savings of $600,000 from Crouse and
Upstate Hospitals.
Expenditure assumptions include:
- $0 in allowance for negotiated wage increases for all
bargaining units.