Special Meeting & 2027 Budget Hearing
October 15, 2026 | Troy City Council
October 15, 2026 | Troy City Council
The clerk's minutes for this session haven't been posted yet. Proceedings below are from the meeting recording. The budget hearing was a question-and-answer session with no votes. Dollar figures come from a spoken slide presentation; check them against the published 2027 recommended budget.
The council formally received Mayor Mantello's 2027 recommended budget and set the dates for its public hearings, passing Resolution 96 7-0. It then held the first of about six evenings of budget hearings, organized by department. Total spending would rise about $9.1 million, or 7.4 percent, to $131.4 million, with health insurance and pension costs each up more than 8 percent, Deputy Comptroller Susan Marks said.
The hearing grew heated when City Auditor Jeff Nesich asked the Mantello administration to confirm the city's reserve and fund balance totals. An administration official said, "I can't verify the number," and another called the exchange "a political charade" before Council President Sue Steele said the auditor has every right to be there. Council Member Noreen McKee questioned the budget's $21.6 million sales tax estimate, saying current county collections point lower. City Clerk Addie Thompson said the clerk's office subscription and staff pay lines don't cover what it needs.
Council President Steele presiding. Called to order at 6:01 p.m. Present: Council Members Phil DiLorenzo, Shikole Struber, Kathleen Spain-McLaren, Noreen McKee, Jona Favreau, Greg Campbell-Cohen, and Council President Steele. All seven present. In attendance: Mayor Carmella Mantello, Deputy Mayor Seamus Donnelly, Corporation Counsel Richard Morrissey, Comptroller Michael McNeff, Deputy Comptroller Susan Marks, Head of Finance and Personnel Gabrielle Mahoney, and City Auditor Jeff Nesich. About 20 members of the public attended. Adjourned at 6:04 p.m.
The only item was Resolution 96, which acknowledges that the council received the mayor's budget and sets the public hearing dates. No one spoke during the public forum. DiLorenzo moved it, McKee seconded, and it passed 7-0. The council must adopt a budget by December 1.
Finance Committee, chaired by Council President Steele. Began at about 6:15 p.m. Departments reviewed: Mayor's Office, Vital Statistics, City Assessor, Comptroller's Office and its bureaus, Personnel, City Clerk, City Council, and City Auditor.
The budget stays under the state tax cap, Mayor Mantello told the council, and the city holds a $1.2 million surplus and a healthy contingency fund. The mayor called it "a fiscally responsible approach to affordability, asset protection, delivering efficient services, and making every dollar count."
The mayor named pension, health care, and contract costs as the main drivers. A hiring pause is in effect outside police and fire, with exceptions reviewed case by case. The mayor said there is no garbage fee increase this year and that 2027 is City Hall's first full year in the former Proctors building, which the mayor said will save $100,000.
On revenue, the administration is talking with the Rensselaer County executive about a new sales tax sharing agreement and plans to explore selling water wholesale to neighboring towns in 2027.
Marks, three weeks into the job, walked the council through the totals. Spending goes from $122,317,343 in the original 2026 budget to $131,383,879 in 2027. The general fund is $95,136,330. The water fund rises from $14,910,303 to $16,456,840, and the garbage fund from $5,567,346 to $5,966,863.
Benefits drive most of the increase. Health insurance rises $1,590,499, or 8.44 percent, to $20,435,118. Pension costs rise 8.91 percent, to $14,464,793. Citywide salaries move much less, from $46,183,848 to $46,843,648. Benefits as a whole make up nearly 30 percent of the budget. Marks called the budget "a living document" that will be watched throughout the year.
McKee pressed on the general fund's biggest outside revenue line. To bring in $21.6 million for Troy, she said, the county would need to collect about $145 million in sales tax. The county collected $66 million in the first half of this year, she said, which puts the full year at $133 million to $136 million.
Administration officials said they checked the forecast with the county several times, and that the county has at times beaten its own sales tax budget by almost $10 million. If revenue falls short, they said, the city would hold down spending to make up the difference. The contingency fund is $500,000. McKee said she supports renegotiating the deal: "The formula does need to be changed. We are not capturing as much of the upside as we should be capturing."
Campbell-Cohen asked whether talks with the county have started. They have, officials said, and the administration wants a deal before the current agreement expires February 28. A council member noted that county collections grew from $95.9 million in 2019 to $131.4 million, while Troy's effective share fell from 18 percent to 15.48 percent. Campbell-Cohen said the roughly $80 million threshold, above which Troy's share drops, was set when $80 million was a normal year and should grow with the county's collections.
The evening's most heated exchange came when Nesich, the council's auditor, asked the administration to confirm that the city holds about $5.1 million in reserve funds set aside by law, and, citing last year's audit, that fund balances total about $33 million. An administration official objected that the council could "sit through budget hearings while your auditor suggests that we drain fund balance. What are we doing right now?" Nesich said that wasn't the suggestion: "I'm trying to give a number so the public and the council knows the number." An administration official answered, "I can't verify the number."
Officials said the figures are in the city's public annual financial report and audited financials, and that they hadn't come prepared for audit questions. They offered to take written questions and pointed to next week's presentation of the 2025 audit. One official called the exchange "a political charade."
Steele ended it. The auditor "is our staff person" and has every right to be at the hearings, Steele said, and the council would keep asking questions.
Nesich later described the job: about 12 hours a week, approving roughly 800 transactions a month, with a focus on purchasing. The city is now in full compliance with its purchasing rules, Nesich said. One set of budget transfers doesn't balance, Nesich said, with $2.5 million going out that can't be traced. The question was sent to the comptroller. Council members and Steele agreed it would make sense next year to budget pension and health insurance costs by fund rather than spreading them across departments.
A council member noted that the mayor's office health insurance line is up 83 percent and its total budget up 31 percent with no added staff. Officials said a private secretary to the deputy mayor was hired after last year's budget passed, and that a December salary policy for non-union staff raised pay with 3 percent yearly increases built in.
Council Member Jona Favreau asked how the December raises were set. She noted that a deputy director of public information got 35 percent, the deputy mayor 18 percent, and the director of equity and inclusion 7 percent. Deputy Mayor Donnelly said salaries were compared with similar jobs in nearby cities and hadn't been reset in years. The administration said it is "severely understaffed" in senior roles. A council member added that the approved raises ran $156,000 over what the 2026 budget set aside. Officials said vacancies, contingency money, and budget transfers brought to the council will cover the gap.
Campbell-Cohen asked about the contract for the city's UPSU employees union, which expired at the end of 2024. Officials said an agreement will come to the council in the coming weeks and is already in the 2027 budget.
Thompson said the assistant and deputy city clerk salaries came in below what the clerk's office asked for, and the council can't set pay for union positions on its own. Similar clerks' offices pay $5,000 to $15,000 more, Thompson said. Campbell-Cohen supported asking the union about a deal for those two jobs.
Thompson also said the office's $1,000 dues and subscriptions line can't cover the online city code subscription (the office asked for about $9,000) or the state system fees for dog, marriage, and gaming licenses and electrical and plumbing permits. Three code subscription bills are unpaid. A $5,000 repairs and maintenance line that had covered gaps was cut to zero. A council member said the council would address both concerns.
The two-person Vital Statistics office holds about 225,000 birth records and 160,000 death records, City Registrar Heather Mulinio said, and has digitized 25,778 birth records so far. Mulinio had no budget concerns.
City Assessor Sharon Martin said Troy's equalization rate is 50.3 percent, meaning a home assessed at $100,000 is worth about twice that. The last full revaluation was in 2013, and a new one would cost roughly $300,000 over two years, Martin estimated. Martin's one concern was money for assessment challenges: the office asked for $30,000, one commercial appraisal can cost $12,000 to $15,000, and the request was cut.
Asked whether the comptroller's budget is enough, Comptroller McNeff said the office is fully staffed but has "no breathing room." The city's financial software is so old that finding one number can take four or five systems, an official said. A new system starts rolling out in early 2027. Mahoney explained a roughly $100,000 drop in personnel consulting and a new employee recognition line for service plaques and a staff lunch.
Steele asked about the Neighborhood Improvement Program, which is on track to spend all $15,000 this year. Favreau asked why host community agreement revenue, money developers pay along with tax breaks to cover city services, more than doubled. Officials said the comptroller's reconciliation is showing more accurate collections. Campbell-Cohen asked why dog license revenue is falling, from $19,000 two years ago to a projected $7,000. Thompson said new licenses are down and most dogs at the shelter are unlicensed.
The mayor closed by asking the council to work together before the December 1 deadline. "We're not naive," the mayor said, but asked the council to "put the politics aside."
The council meets again Thursday, October 22. The clerk's special meeting agenda lists a vote to override, or set aside, Mayor Mantello's veto of Local Law 3, the license plate reader camera rules. Law, Finance (with the outside auditors' 2025 audit), and Science and Technology committee meetings follow. Steele said the times may change.
All seven members present. Title as read into the record; the clerk's minutes have not been posted yet. The budget hearing held no votes.
| # | Full Title | Sponsors | Notes | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Res. 96 | Resolution Acknowledging Receipt of the Mayor's 2027 Recommended City Budget and Setting the Dates for the Public Hearings on the Proposed Budgets Estimates for 2027 | Steele (Admin.) | Motion by DiLorenzo, seconded by McKee | 7-0 |