Oct. 17—The city of Oneonta Department of Public Works draft budget for 2025 reflects several major infrastructure needs, including a new roof on the road salt garage.
City Public Works Director Chris Yacobucci said Thursday, Oct. 17 that the DPW budget request includes 29 items ranging from equipment needs to repairs to water, sewer lines and roads.
“We often have the most needs in the budget based on necessary upgrades to infrastructure that can reach a point of being a safety issue,” he said.
The road salt garage roof is a fabric cover for outdoor weather that has been patched several times in the past few years, Yacobucci said. A new cover would cost $80,000.
“That’s just one example” Yacobucci said. “It comes down to it being a safety concern if things like this need to get done, which also means other things get cut.”
City Administrator Greg Mattice and Finance Director Virginia Lee presented the Common Council with its first look at the 2025 draft budget Tuesday, Oct. 15.
“This is the Draft A of the needs, and Draft B we will be making decisions once we review this and look through everything and suss out all that is in Draft B,” Mayor Mark Drnek said Tuesday.
Mattice said that one of the main concerns of the city budget is the general fund.
The draft budget reviewed Tuesday showed a nearly $1.14 million increase in the general fund, mostly from contracts and other outside sources, Lee said via email Thursday.
Increases include the state retirement system, which increased the required city’s contribution rates by 5.46% to 17.41%, and the health insurance rates, which are estimated to increase 17.7% for Excellus and 48% for the retirees’ 65+ plans, Lee said.
“The 2025 draft budget presented was a ‘needs’ budget,” Lee said. “The department heads are very aware of the limited revenue sources and are very attentive to the budget requests.”
The budgets presented by the departments heads in Draft A were to not exceed the current tax cap in Oneonta, which is 2.2453%. The tax cap, which was enacted by the state legislature in 2011, established a limit on the annual growth of property tax levies by local governments and school districts to 2% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less, and it allowed for a tax base growth factor determined by the state.
The tax cap in Oneonta hasn’t been changed in the past 12 or 13 years, Yacobucci said. This has been beneficial for taxpayers in Oneonta, but it also means that old equipment and infrastructure repairs may get cut from the DPW budget.
“In a nutshell, the can has been kicked down the road for a long time,” Yacobucci said, “and many infrastructure needs for the city have been affected because there hasn’t been an increase in the tax cap. For example, infrastructure ages and if it’s not replaced, the costs get even higher. We have in the budget water treatment, 66 miles of water mains which need repair and have been barely touched, and they are almost 100 years old.”
The cost to repair a water main is $2 to $3 million dollars a mile. Oneonta’s sewer has clay pipes, which need replacing, Yacobucci said.
“How can you hold this budget at a 2.2% tax cap every year when insurance alone jumps 10% a year? Everything in my department can go up 10%, which means how can you keep holding that tax cap,” Yacobucci said.
For the DPW, the Draft B budget may mean certain pieces of equipment may not be replaced, like a snowplow that’s been in service since the 1980s, or potential job cuts, Yacobucci said. DPW has already cut out a currently vacant position for a student worker aid engineer.
The council plans to meet the next two consecutive Tuesdays, Oct. 22 to review Draft B and Oct. 29 to review Draft C of the budget.
The Oneonta city budget draft can be found at www.oneonta.ny.us/departments/finance/2025_budget_documents.php.
Kathleen Gasperini, staff writer, can be reached at kgasperini@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7206.
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