Lackawanna, N.Y. (WBEN) - The City of Lackawanna is the latest community seeking an increase in the tax levy in its next operating budget. This increase could see as much as a 23.6% tax levy hike in the budget starting Aug. 1.
One pundit believes there are two reasons for this, one we've seen in other communities.
Ken Kruly of Politics and Stuff says in recent years, Lackawanna didn't do much to increase taxes in the last several years, even if costs have been going up for fringe benefits or utilities. The other is something we've heard about before.
"The other issue with Lackawanna that's true and other locations is that they evidently didn't plan for the how they were going to use the federal pandemic aid, which was one time aid that was going to eventually disappear," said Kruly in an interview with WBEN.
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Kruly says cities that didn't efficiently use the one-time funding find themselves in a financial pickle.
"One-time revenues are one-time revenues," he said. "It's better if you use them for capital projects or something that are not going to be repeated. If you hire people based on that one time revenue, which perhaps Lackawanna has done, then, when that revenue runs out, you're left with eliminating those jobs or biting the bullet on a very large tax increase."
Kruly adds he's seeing the jobs not getting eliminated, so the alternative is only just to increase the taxes.
Similar tax levy increases like Lackawanna have already been seen this year alone in the Town of Amherst and other communities.
"Amherst has a very large increase, the City of Buffalo, a very large increase, Village of Kenmore a large increase. We've had situations where school districts in West Seneca and Hamburg are having problems, although they did make some layoffs. But the results are the consequences are pretty much the same thing, there wasn't good management of that one time revenue from the federal government," Kruly noted.
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Kruly believes the proposed tax levy hike in Lackawanna will be a tough sell for the residents in Lackawanna.
"Lackawanna is a poor city. It's not the same as Amherst, and the tax increases are also difficult for the people in Amherst, but it's different demographics, and it'll be very, very hard in Lackawanna, plus the increases are even more than what was discussed in Amherst," Kruly explained. "From what I've seen, the projected tax increase for houses assessed for over at $100,000 a year is going to be $300 or $400 extra in the tax bill. That's an awfully big chunk to hit anybody with, particularly in a poor city."
The Lackawanna City Council has until the end of this week to pass the proposed city budget. Discussions between the Council and Mayor Annette Iafallo's office continue at this time.