The city of Utica’s 2026-2027 budget was passed without an increase to the tax levy.
At a special meeting on March 19, the Utica Common Council voted along party lines, six to three, with all the Republican council members voting against.
Utica Mayor Mike Galime publicly presented his proposed 2026 budget of $93.3 million on Feb. 6, asking for a 2.9% tax increase on property taxes that would amount to an additional $50 per year to residential tax bills.
Third District Councilor Joe Betar said he felt the budget achieved an overall good balance.
“I’m voting for this budget because it’s a 0% tax increase, we’ve reduced our fund balance draw [this year] from over $2 million to $0, the citizens get an extra $500,000 in paving, and there’s an extra $337,000 going into the contingency fund,” he said before the vote.
Sixth District Councilor Joseph Betrus Jr. said he was happy for the zero percent increase, but said it could have been done without cutting anything.
“[The council] is handcuffing the administration on a lot of stuff,” Betrus said. “Like street lighting. The street lights are out all the time and I get calls all the time. And safety gear! We’re adding $75,000 to the budget because someone made a comment. And electric, we’re cutting $45,000 from the electric line. Bottom line, we could have a zero either way with all these services but we nickeled and dimed it.”
Betrus added how, in his opinion, he felt the budget was constructed in a way to “…handcuff the mayor.”
Betrus said he was going to vote no against the budget and was joined after by Fourth District Councilor Frank Carcone.
“I don’t like the way we got it down to zero and I don’t like how the process went,” Carcone said. “We had members of this council blatantly telling other people how to vote. I’m glad it’s zero, but we could have it the other way.”
First District Councilor Katie Aiello said there was no political intent with the budget and that no one was out to get the mayor.
“Yes, a lot of people in this room didn’t get what they wanted but neither did we,” Aiello said. “I think this is a good budget for the city and while there are improvements I wish we had, the votes weren’t there… We didn’t cut into anyone’s budget.”
Councilor Samantha Colosimo-Testa fired back, saying the budget was “…a sham” because the members of the Board of the Estimations and Appropriations, just settled with the CSEA Union.
“They’ve got retroactive pay. That’s $660,000. We’re already starting this year’s budget $660,000 in the hole,” Colosimo-Testa said. “But they’ll say that they got the taxes down to zero. Let’s face it, if we didn’t get that money we’d be $2.1 million in the hole because we’d be using the fund balance.”
Colosimo-Testa refers to the almost $3.8 million increase the city of Utica received in temporary municipal assistance from New York State this year.
Colosimo-Testa said she was voting against the budget for this reason and warned that the city was looking at an $880,000 deficit in 2026.
For the last step in the budget process, Galime can attempt to veto any changes to the budget.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Utica Common Council passes budget, 0% tax increase
Reporting by Casey Pritchard, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
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