Transforming Rochester 16 - Housing Is A Right
Sunday, October 21, 2012
You can listen to the podcast here or click on the link in the right column.
Labels:
affordable housing,
Development,
home ownership,
Metro Justice,
tax breaks
Posted by
Dave A
at
3:31 PM
0
comments
Rochester's Fiscal Future
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
First the NY Times wrote an article claiming all counties and cities in New York are begging Albany for money as they are facing huge deficits. Then the local D&C implied that Rochester may go bankrupt when discussing Syracuse's financial problems. These could not go unanswered so Mayor Richards spoke to WHEC news and denied that Rochester will go bankrupt in the foreseeable future.
Despite the official denial, cities and counties did reiterate their plea for more money from Albany.
This is not surprising as rapidly increasing pension and medical costs and the recently state-imposed property tax cap are putting great strain on most local governments. This combination of rising costs and capped revenue is bound to cause problems eventually.
Looking at our community, Rochester is not doing well. Last year we faced a $40 million budget gap and even after help from the state we were still $25 million short. There were some cuts and many people saw their taxes increase as the city raised the assessment of their properties, but the City also assumed sales tax revenue would grow by almost 4% and that the unions would agree to pay some of their medical costs. While sales tax revenue has grown a robust 2.4 % this still left the City almost $2 million short of what was needed and the unions did not give back the more than $3 million the City needed. There is obviously a problem.
All told, there are at least $100 million which Rochester could raise from these large properties which have enjoyed substantial tax breaks for years and are paying less than a quarter of their appropriate rate. This does not mean that Rochester should not pursue more state money, nor that we should stop asking for mandate relief, as the problem needs to be attacked from all angles. But there are rich and profitable companies which have enjoyed favorable tax rates for years at the expense of the community. As we have cut hours at libraries, laid off teachers, and cut recreation, many rich people have enjoyed high profits due to low taxes and now would be a good time to end this corporate welfare once and for all.
Labels:
bankruptcy,
budget,
Fair Tax Assessment,
Merkel Donohue,
state money,
Tom Richards
Posted by
Alex White
at
11:42 AM
0
comments
Tranforming Rochester Podcast - Collegetown Bait And Switch
Monday, October 8, 2012
Alex White and Dave Atias discuss the Collegetown project in the Mt. Hope area of Rochester. We discuss how the project began and what the residents of the neighborhood were told they were getting in the beginning. Alex has a theory that Collegetown is not intended to be successful. But Dave worries that while this will take years to find out the truth, other corporate welfare-funded projects will be imposed on our community. Let us know what YOU think.
You can listen to the podcast here, click on the link on the right or listen to Rochester Free Radio.
Labels:
College Town,
corporate welfare,
Development,
Mt. Hope Neighborhood,
University of Rochester
Posted by
Dave A
at
6:07 PM
0
comments