The Common Council delayed a formal vote on the 2025 budget as last-minute amendments to make cuts on line items stacked following overwhelming discontent from a public hearing at Wednesday’s meeting.
During the public hearing and public comment sections of the meeting, all but one of the 14 speakers who spoke about the budget, initially proposed by City Manager Deb Mohlenhoff on Oct. 9, voiced their concerns that the budget’s increase on the tax rates would burden homeowners in Ithaca.
Multiple residents argued the proposed tax hikes were not sustainable for residents, with two speakers saying they were ready to sell their properties because they could not afford the increases.
“It is sloppy, it is careless and it is insulting to people like me who this year will be paying $19,000 in property taxes on a house I bought for $144,000,” said Ithaca resident Ann Sullivan. “Next year I will be paying $24,000 a year.”
The budget, if adopted, would increase to $107 million from last year’s budget of $101 million.
On Sept. 5, the city approved a tax levy override of eight percent, allowing the city to increase tax rates higher than stipulated under state law. Under the proposed budget, the average tax payment for Ithaca households would increase from $3,618 to $4,155 — a nearly 15 percent spike on top of the eight percent tax levy. These changes are expected to cumulatively raise $33 million, according to Mohlenhoff.
Alderperson Margaret Fabrizio (D-Fifth Ward) heavily criticized the proposed budget, sending a mass email — which was obtained by The Sun — to the Fall Creek Neighborhood Association email group urging community members to attend the meeting to speak against the budget and sharing a petition urging the city to stop the proposed budget.
“I am absolutely a minority voice on Council about this so I welcome and need your help to convince my colleagues to table this budget,” Fabrizio wrote in the email.
Throughout the meeting, Fabrizio reiterated her dissent with the budget, emphasizing the higher tax levy was not sustainable for homeowners.
“It’s just simply too much, we have to be better than this,” Fabrizio said. “We have to keep our focus on the essentials until we can develop more revenue streams.”
An amendment to lower funding for Ithaca Bike Share by $50,000 proposed by Alderperson Tiffany Kumar ’24 (D-Fourth Ward) passed on a seven to four vote with Alderperson Pierre Saint-Perez grad (D-Third Ward), Alderperson Ducson Nguyen (D-Second Ward), Alderperson Kris Haines-Sharp (D-Second Ward), Alderperson Kayla Matos (D-First Ward) and Mayor Robert Cantelmo grad voting against the cut.
Kumar argued the funding should partly come from the University, which hosts several bike stations on campus.
“I think it is of the utmost importance to pressure Cornell and continue to push them to contribute their fair share to the city,” Kumar said when proposing the cut. “I think enabling them by soldering certain costs such as bike share when it should be Cornell at the very least sends a message that we will allow them to continue walking all over us.”
Alderperson Patrick Kuehl ’24 (D- Fourth Ward) proposed a cut of $10,000 from City staff development, taking from the diversity equity and inclusion training funding. The proposal failed three to eight with Shapiro, Kuehl and Fabrizio voting in favor.
“I definitely do recognize the important work that money has been used for but that said I think $19,000 in addition to the 2023 actual [funds] can still do a lot while making sure we are frugal with our 2025 budget,” Kuehl said.
An amendment proposed by Cantelmo to reduce additional funding for Common Council training and travel from $10,000 to $5,000 passed with an eight to three vote, with Shapiro, Kuehl and Fabrizio voting against.
The council also voted to overturn an amendment that would have increased the mayor’s salary by $32,500. The motion passed with a six to four vote with Matos, Kumar, Saint-Perez and Kuehl voting against.
Alderperson Phoebe Brown (D-First Ward), Alderperson David Shapiro (D-Third Ward) and Fabrizio walked off the latest budget meeting on Oct. 26 when they realized they did not have the votes to block the amendment to raise the mayor’s salary when it was proposed. The remaining members of the council passed the amendment.
“I’d like to apologize for the way I stormed out of here last time to my colleagues and also to my community. I was pretty heated,” Brown said. “But I did go home and I checked myself, and I was pretty embarrassed.”
Shapiro also spoke on the criticism about the incident but did not explicitly apologize.
“For the comments that seem to be somewhat critical, perhaps of my behavior, I will just let you know that I will reflect on that and think about it,” Shapiro said.
Three hours into the meeting, Shapiro made a motion to table the discussion on the budget until a later meeting, with all but Kuehl and Fabrizio voting against.
“Come on, we’ve gotta have more stamina than this. What is the average age in this group — like 22 or something? Let’s get some more business done,” Fabrizio said.
The council also approved the budget for the wastewater treatment plant unanimously, with $7,423,765 allocated for the next fiscal year. Alderperson Clyde Lederman ’26 (D-Fifth Ward) said the measure would increase city efforts to make two new hires for wastewater plant positions.
The sewer and water rate service increases resolution passed unanimously. Water rates will increase from $9.92 to $10.83 and sewer rates will increase per 100 cubic feet from $7.29 to $7.85.
The city also named Dominick Recckio as deputy city manager on a vote of nine to two, with Fabrizio and Shapiro voting against. Recckio served as Tompkins County communications director since 2020 and was previously the director of strategic communications and partnerships at the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce. He will begin his term on Dec. 30.