Oneonta anticipates $1.5M increase in '24 budget [The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y.]

Aug. 8—The city of Oneonta is likely looking at least a $1.5 million overall budget increase in 2024.

City Administrator Greg Mattice said Tuesday that the anticipated increases in city employee salaries and benefits depends on negotiations and is based on current staffing levels.

Salaries and benefits generally go up every year. The city is in ongoing contract negotiations with the employees' collective bargaining units.

Mattice said city staff have set some initial targets and assumptions for the 2024 draft budget.

An independent study, presented to the council last week, showed that city employees are paid roughly 75% of what similar positions in comparable New York cities and counties are paid.

City Finance Director Virginia Lee said that the city could adjust the union contract to reach about 90%.

The city would have the funds, Lee said, "if we approve our [decreased] health insurance change, if we approve the sales tax increase, if we approve the tax cap and if we approve the interest incomes."

The city's health insurance broker, USI Insurance Services, offers a reduction through a health care insurance consortium of around 7 or 8%.

Lee said she estimates the savings would be about $400,000 total, with about $280,000 going towards the general fund and the rest allocated to the other city funds.

Under the consortium, every member has individual rates unlike insurance pools — meaning the city needs to come in at the lowest possible rate.

Mattice said that the property tax increase would be 1.57%, or about $80,000, from 2023 to 2024, if the council were to approve the amount allowed under the tax cap formula.

The projected sales tax increase would be 5.4%, or $425,000, from 2023 to 2024.

Lee said that she was comfortable suggesting that number because she believes the city will have three years in a row of collecting more than $5 million in sales tax.

Interest income is currently much higher than what the city has historically done, she said. The city's portfolio is earning about 5.5% interest, expected to carry into 2024.

"In 2023, we only budgeted $35,000," Lee said. "I feel that we can safely budget $150,000. We've already earned that this year and we're only through the month of July."

Water and sewer rates are projected to have 10% increases apiece in 2024, Mattice said.

The council plans to review the capital plan, which includes many water and sewer projects, at another discussion sometime in September.

Lee also recommended looking at options for upgraded software city-wide.

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