Breaking down Walsh’s past five city budgets as mayor

By Stephanie Wright asst. news editor

Over his past five years as mayor of Syracuse, Ben Walsh has prioritized public safety, housing and infrastructure development and economic growth in his fiscal year budgets.

At a total of $310 million, Walsh’s proposal for FY24 is the largest budget he’s proposed, and includes the first property tax increase in five years and includes steps to reduce the city’s budget deficit by 35%.

Although Walsh has emphasized mitigating gun violence through community efforts in his 2023 State of the City address, the FY24 budget doesn’t explicitly address funding dedicated to these measures. The budget does propose an allocation of $270,000 to the Office of Gun Violence and maintaining high levels of police funding.

Public safety

Although Walsh’s first budget proposal as mayor placed a hiring and raise freeze on city workers, it provided more money for new classes of police and firefighters, and funded the city’s acquisition of police body cameras. Last year, Walsh increased police funding by 18%.

Each of Walsh’s subsequent budgets have allowed for police and fire department funding for equipment and new recruit training. They have also funded the expansion of public safety units to include gun violence mitigation, burglaries and vehicular safety, as well as a Police Athletic League for engagement.

Housing and infrastructure

Much of Walsh’s efforts to improve housing have been concentrated in code enforcement and zoning changes, including the ReZone Syracuse initiative.

Walsh also established the City Lead Abatement and Enforcement ordinance in FY21 to allow for more thorough lead testing in buildings and address the city’s high levels of lead, and increased funding for the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development in FY23.

The budget also bestowed $750,000 to the Greater Syracuse Land Bank — an organiza- tion that buys and resells abandoned properties for demolition or redevelopment — highlighting Walsh’s focus on housing development in the city. The year prior, before Walsh took office, the Syracuse Common Council cut $1 million of funding from the land bank.

After the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Walsh used funds from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security act to support city housing needs like emergency response, neighborhood planning and code inspections.

Walsh’s budget provisions for housing ramped up for FY22 with the establishment of a new housing safety and quality code enforcement unit with expanded staffing capacities, as well as investments in city sidewalks and parks and recreation facilities to address concerns brought up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Walsh has also included budget provisions for the Interstate 81 highway project in past budgets. In FY23, Walsh established a I-81 City Project Director to plan and oversee the construction of a community grid in place of the highway’s viaduct.

Economic development

Walsh has funded several city initiatives aimed at growing small businesses and industry within Syracuse, including Syracuse Surge and the Resurgent Neighborhoods Initiative, created in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Walsh also established a STEAM high school in 2019, which will occupy a previously abandoned high school building, to provide more technology-focused education and training opportunities at a public level.

Now, Walsh’s plans for economic development are bolstered by Micron’s investment in a semiconductor microchip manufacturing facility in Clay. The plant, set to begin construction in 2024, is slated to bring an estimated 50,000 jobs to the central New York region.

Fiscal planning

Throughout his budgets, Walsh has refrained from raising property taxes until now, instead largely relying on city reserves, water rate increases and tax base growth to fulfill city revenue goals. When Walsh first moved to raise tax and water rates for FY20, it was the first time the city did so since 2011.

Over the course of his time as mayor, Walsh has changed the city’s deficit. In 2018, Walsh’s budget left an $11 million deficit that was covered by city reserves. The following year, Walsh again relied on $8.1 million in city reserves to cover expenses.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city lost $6.1 million in sales tax revenue as businesses shuttered. This contributed to an overall loss of $11.1 million of revenue for the city. Walsh still refrained from raising property taxes despite the financial uncertainty from the pandemic.

This year’s proposed 2% property tax increase serves to close the current $21.1 million deficit. If passed, the increase will be the second of its kind in the past six years for Syracuse. spwright@syr.edu @stephaniwri_