The $106 million budget for the fiscal year 2025 passed at Wednesday’s meeting after multiple amendments to cut pieces of the budget failed to pass.
This marks a nearly five percent increase from last year’s $101 million budget. The city on Sept. 4 approved increasing the rate for property taxes past the limit set by New York State law.
Next year’s budget allocates funding to all city staff positions and sets the hiring of seven new Ithaca Police Department members. In addition, there are several capital projects funding development, non-profit organizations and a $50,000 study into reparations in Ithaca. The proposal was sponsored by Alderperson Phoebe Brown (D-First Ward) and Alderperson Kayla Matos (D-First Ward) — members of the Solidarity Slate which also launched a petition signed by 150 people.
Multiple community members asked the council to reconsider the tax levy at the Nov. 6 Common Council meeting, arguing that the proposed tax hikes of 14 percent were not sustainable. The council had tabled the final vote on the budget at its Nov. 6 meeting to consider additional cuts. Seven additional community members spoke at the public comment section of the Wednesday meeting arguing against the proposed cuts.
“The burden of this budget is going to fall primarily on single-family homeowners and single-family home renters,” said resident David Barken. “I don’t have the answers here but perceptibly you need to at some point acknowledge the limits of this community.”
In response to these criticisms, Alderperson David Shapiro (D-Third Ward) proposed multiple amendments — some throughout the past week — to cut over $900,000 from the city budget. Most of these cuts would come from defunding major positions like the city attorney, the superintendent of public works, the deputy city controller, the deputy director of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center and the deputy director of the city’s planning department.
25 speakers, composed of city workers and community members, condemned the proposed cuts by saying that city workers felt insulted.
Superintendent of Public Works Michael Thorne heavily criticized both Shapiro and Alderperson Margaret Fabrizio (D-Fifth Ward) — who have repeatedly proposed sharp cuts to the budget — and called their questioning of city staff in emails and at meetings as “insulting” and “demoralizing.”
“The reasons they provide [for the cuts] indicate either an outstanding level of ignorance or else a complete lack of maturity,” Thorne said. “Council has become an embarrassment for this city, its reputation is being brought down by two alderpersons and their behavior should not be tolerated by other alderpersons and staff. Enough is enough.”
Fabrizio withdrew an amendment that would reduce funds for GIAC by $250,000 which would take from financial support designated for creating a community kitchen at the former Red and White Cafe. However, she clarified that she did not initially understand it was a matching grant from the state that only needed partial support from the city.
“I think it is an important investment in our community and I’m not going to be the person at the end of the line saying, ‘Well I don’t like it so sorry about all the work you’ve done, that’s not our job,’” Alderperson Clyde Lederman ’26 (D-Fifth Ward) said.
Brown and Matos introduced a proposal to delay the hiring of seven IPD officers for the upcoming year to December 2025. Three officers are set to onboard in January and four are set to onboard in July under the current budget. The positions would have to be filled earlier than December to ensure the department was not understaffed to keep up with anticipated retirements according to IPD Chief Thomas Kelly.
“We are below critical levels, and when we talk about being able to ascertain grant funding and a number of different programs that are out there, we are not able to attain grant money because we can’t meet the basic levels [of staffing] to get there,” Kelly said.
The proposal failed by a vote of eight to three, with Matos, Brown and Shapiro voting in favor of the delayed hiring.
Brown criticized the council’s inaction to take concrete steps to explore an alternative security force that is not the police department arguing the council was not taking the needs of the community seriously, citing the three-year-old efforts to reimagine public safety that have not led to significant police reform.
“Reimagining public safety comes up whenever it is convenient,” Brown said. “Yes we want police officers riding bikes and saying ‘hi’ and doing the things we need them to do, but most importantly, we want them to understand the harm we feel that has not been addressed yet, not to the people I talk to on the street, so for me, my heart breaks that we couldn’t even consider that.”
Other failed proposals included cutting funding for a fire boat for the Ithaca Fire Department which would include equipment to specialize in rescue operations. Shapiro withdrew the motion with unanimous consent.
The current tax rate remains to be determined since the amendments introduced were not settled until the time of the meeting, in December the council will vote to approve the tax rate for next year.
Fabrizio gave a speech in which she “regretted” how the council planned the budget and asked for the city to find other ways to generate revenue and sustain city services.
“We need creative and careful management while we build additional revenue streams,” Fabrizio said. “While I cannot in good conscience vote for this budget with these large tax increases, I do look forward to working closely with my colleagues to develop an improved approach for 2026.”
Lederman and Alderperson Ducson Nguyen (D-Second Ward) criticized Fabrizio’s remarks which they characterized as “beating down” on staff members.
“I can understand questioning salary but when the question implies questioning the value of the employee, I think I should have pushed more forcefully on that,” Nguyen said.
The council also unanimously approved the Downtown Plan, which includes provisions for priorities and challenges for three core areas downtown — The Downtown Core area, the West State Street Corridor and The West End area. The plan was co-authored by Common Council members and the Downtown Ithaca Alliance
The main issues the plan explored include land use regulations, incentivizing economic activity and development of housing density and addressing transportation needs and public safety. The plan will guide future Common Council initiatives.