As budget deliberations continued Tuesday, Sept. 9, the city of Oneonta Common Council discussed raising the tax levy at least $300,000, with some council members pushing for a $350,000 to $400,000 increase.
If the city were to increase the tax levy by $300,000 for a $100,000 property assessment, the annual bill would go up $59.95, Director of Finance Virginia Lee said. If the levy were increased by $350,000, the bill would go up $70.02 and for a $400,000, or 7.2%, increase, it would go up $80.08, she added.
Council members faced some disagreement regarding how much to go over the tax cap set forth by the state comptroller’s office.
Don Mathisen, D-Eighth Ward, said the council should abide by the recommended tax cap of 2% for Oneonta. Lee said to stay within tax cap regulation, the city would only be able to put forth a $152,000 levy raise.
Mathisen said the 2% increase would be sufficient, and Elayne Mosher Campoli, D-First Ward, pushed back, saying each year the city does not implement an increase where needed, it falls “further behind.”
Lee said that last year, the city put about a $300,000 increase in place. She added that the tax cap is a guide, and to go over the tax cap, the city would need to put a local law in place.
“If the council does decide to go over the tax cap, I would recommend that we start the process sooner than leaving it until November to lay the local law so we can get it in place,” Lee said. “It doesn’t mean we have to do it, but at least we have it in place so we can do it.”
City Administrator Greg Mattice said the council needed to come to a general consensus to decide on a recommendation for the draft budget. Mayor Mark Drnek asked the council to go around and each provide their thoughts on the proposed $400,000 tax levy increase.
Michael Forster Rothbart, D-Seventh Ward, said he would be comfortable with the average household’s tax bill going up about $100, which would put the levy increase at between $350,000 and $400,000.
Cecelia Walsh-Russo, D-Second Ward, said she had concerns about the 2026 budget and future budgets due to rollbacks of public funds at the state and federal levels. She said she worries that with these rollbacks, the council could some day be “unable to provide the services that our residents expect and need.”
“I just want to make sure that as a council, we keep in mind that the future budgets may be far more dire, and our residents may be in much poorer shape given what is essentially a claw back of public monies on the national and then eventually the state level,” Walsh-Russo said.
Scott Harrington, R-Fifth Ward, asked about the cost of living and how that could impact a tax levy increase. He said while he does not think the city can stay at the recommended tax cap, he would suggest the city put forth the same increase as last year, of about $300,000.
While she did not name a specific amount, Shannon McHugh, D-Third Ward, said she agreed the city needed to go over the tax cap in order to do its work.
Walsh-Russo and Mosher Campoli both were in favor of adhering to Lee’s initial recommendation of a $400,000 increase.
“I’m especially concerned about some of these increases that are coming down the line, like health insurance, retirement, things that are really outside of our control,” Mosher Campoli said.
Some more discussion followed, but an ultimate unofficial vote found that Len Carson, R-Fifth Ward, Harrington and McHugh were in favor of a $300,000 levy increase in the 2026 budget draft, to potentially be made higher at a later point in the budget process, and Forster Rothbart, Walsh-Russo and Mosher Campoli were for a $350,000 to $400,000 increase.
Mathisen said he would only be for the $152,000 raise, complying with the suggested tax cap. With those thoughts in mind, the final council recommendation was for a $300,000 levy increase, with potential to raise it later on.
Lee additionally suggested a $500,000 increase in sales tax for 2026, as compared to 2025. Mattice said there would be a $200,000 budget increase, and the $300,000 would come from sales tax collected on short term rentals, which were not collected before this year.
The council was in agreement that this increase seemed reasonable to include in the draft budget.