Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy. FILE PHOTO
Mayor Bob Duffy says his 2009-10 budget proposal will reduce the property tax rate, but will also cut or reduce funding for arts and cultural programs and festivals.
Duffy's $452.2 million plan represents a 6 percent decrease from the city's 2008-09 budget. It would close a $35.1 million gap, freeze the tax levy, and decrease the tax rate by 4.7 percent. That means the typical resident would pay $64.51 less in city taxes.
The plan calls for the elimination of 53 full-time positions. It freezes the salaries of senior management, which Duffy says will save $1.3 million. Planned cost-of-living increases would be eliminated for administrative, technical, and professional staff.
The mayor's budget plan also reduces funding for the Puerto Rican Festival, High Falls Film Festival, the Rochester International Jazz Festival, and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert series - no amount is specified in materials released to the media. Funding for Ribbin' on the River is cut entirely.
Police layoffs will be averted through $675,000 in federal funding routed through Congress member Louise Slaughter's office. The city is requesting $1.9 million in federal funding over the next three years to avert layoffs - without that money it could lay off up to 15 officers.
Police overtime will be cut to $3.5 million, a 60 percent reduction compared to the $8.8 million spent in 2007-08. That includes a 23.4 percent cut for special events overtime, compared to the current budget.
Comments for "ECONOMICS: Duffy presents his budget" (1)
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Harry Davis said on May. 15, 2009 at 10:25pm
Although we did not win Thursday's Democratic Party nomination for city council, we applaud the democratic results of the convention. We have also seen democracy in action recently with the grenades Mayor Duffy has thrown into the bunker of Maggie Brooks.
It is curious to see Mayor Duffy come around to our campaign's demands of no Renaissance Square. We hope his new found beliefs are sincere and that he does not cave into the county Republicans as many other city politicians have in the past, including our current city council, AND council candidates, all of whom have refused to stand up to illogical financial pressures from Maggie Brooks and others. We have been calling for Mayor Duffy & city council to refuse to give up any property to Ren Square, specifically the Mortimer garage & adjoining parcels. Mayor Duffy did this at the last moment on April 22 when our campaign organized a demonstration in front of the Hyatt Hotel where the RGRTA was holding eminent domain hearings to steal the property of Neil Bauman and Anthony DiMarzo. Although it is total flip-flop from his earlier positions, Mayor Duffy has upset the applecart. In contrast, many will recall our six year long advocacy on this issue dates way back to 2003 when Harry Davis demanded of Mayor Johnson & Monroe County Exec Doyle to stop the bus garage at Main & Clinton. We welcome Mayor Duffy to our camp, if he is truly sincere. No other political official has had the fortitude to stand up to the attempted theft of property by the County Exec & the RGRTA. We did.
We wonder if Mayor Duffy's call for private development to be given an opportunity to replace the grassy knoll now proposed for Ren Square will still result in eminent domain issues which will still steal the property owned by Neil Bauman and others at the corner of Main & Clinton. Or will Mayor Duffy take up our campaign's offer to bring back to Rochester Mr. Bill Reed of Natural Logic www.natlogic.com/ to help show Rochester what smart urban planning can result in. Save our historic structures on Main Street! Mr. Reed, a long time associate of Harry Davis, spoke at the home of the late Nancy Watson Dean back in 2003 when he gave a lecture to guests about Smart Growth and design for Rochester, a lecture, believe it or not, on why Ren Square was a stupid idea six years ago!
Along with Mayor Duffy's recent flip flop, we have been made aware of a recent Rochester City Council secret, unofficial vote which resulted in 5 votes against building Ren Square and 4 undecided votes. That's right, four votes still which may still vote to build 1,000 fast ferries.
So voters of Rochester, there is still sill much work to be done. Maggie Brooks still had her votes Thursday when the Main & Clinton Corp voted for Ren Square. City Council is indecisive. Only Mayor Duffy voted against a project he supported as late as April, 2009. Harry Davis has been against this boondoggle and for sustainable job creation for six years, not one month. We support the advancement of MCC downtown. We are against a bus garage that has no logical reason d'etre. We need President Obama's High Speed Rail to stop at the Amtrak station. The Obama stimulus package will bring $8 billion this summer to build high speed rail. Let's bring jobs to Rochester which will create long lasting prosperity.
Our campaign does not stand for jobs that will pay workers very well for a short time to build a white elephant that will be 1,000 fast ferries and cost $3 million per year to operate and last nearly forever. We have been for "Smart Growth" at Main & Clinton since 2003, 6 years ahead of Mayor Duffy, if his recent move truly does qualify as a vote for "Smart Growth."
It looks to me as if the Ren Square board will support Maggie Brooks. We will then need a city council to stand against the short term pressure to build anything anywhere.
The Democatic primary is September 15. One thousand signatures must be collected between June 6 - July 13 for our campaign to be placed on the September ballot and bring sustainable jobs to Rochester. Come join our campaign. We need all the help Rochester can give to bring CHANGE to our city.
(If you go to Donate NOW on his page, you will find a place to volunteer your time for our campaign.)
www.Harry2009.com
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