BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — On the day of their deadline to approve or amend the budget, the Buffalo Common Council voted through a city budget with a 19% property tax levy increase, down from the 25% hike originally proposed by Mayor Sean Ryan.
For a home with a median value of $208,000, that means a monthly increase of $19.16 — down from $25.83 under Ryan's original proposal.
The twist: the changes the council voted for did not come from the council itself, but from the mayor's office.
In an apparent act of compromise to get the budget across the line, Ryan proposed an amendment package including cuts in the Department of Public Works and by getting rid of five unfilled jobs within City Hall.
The budget passed with a vote of 5-4 with those amendments. Councilmembers Joseph Golombek, Zeneta Everhart, Leah Halton-Pope and Bryan Bollman voted no, with Councilmembers Mitch Nowakowski, Joel Feroleto, David Rivera, Rasheed Wyatt and Christopher Scanlon voting yes.
The latter name is perhaps surprising, considering he was Ryan's former opponent in the race for Buffalo mayor.
"By the time we got to the floor today this thing could have gone one of three ways. One of the two amendment packages or a default vote," Scanlon said. "I felt that [the administration's amendment package] was the lesser of three evils."
WATCH: Buffalo Common Council approves city budget with 19 percent property tax levy increase, down from 25 percent
But not all councilmembers were on side with Ryan's suggestions. Halton-Pope, Golombek and Everhart put forward their own package of cuts, attempting to slash the budget by $23 million, which they said would have brought the tax increase down to around 12-13%. But the other councilmembers voted it down, unable to agree on which budget lines to cut.
Halton-Pope reflected on the outcome.
"There is a reduction and I feel that is something [taxpayers] should be happy about. There's a reduced amount. However I do feel like we've failed," Halton-Pope said.
Speaking after the meeting, Ryan said the budget reflects the start of a "culture change" at City Hall.
Ryan acknowledged the budget's shortcomings with the compromises in mind.
"It's not a perfect budget. The amended budget today is not as strong as the one originally proposed. There are investments that we wanted to make that will have to be reduced or delayed," Ryan said.
Those projects include repairs to some roads, bridges and community centers according to Ryan.
The budget takes effect July 1.
