Syracuse mayor unveils city budget for fiscal year

CITY OF SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Mayor Ben Walsh is looking to improve the city of Syracuse through his 2025 city budget. But those improvements could come at a cost for homeowners.

Come this summer, Syracuse homeowners could be paying more in property taxes.

“What we’re proposing is a reasonable two percent property tax rate increase. For the average home value of a 100,000 that translates to about a $55.00 increase in property taxes for the year,” said Mayor Ben Walsh, city of Syracuse.

An increase Mayor Walsh says isn’t taken lightly but feels is necessary.

“We understand that many of our taxpayers are already burdened with significant household costs and so again we don’t take this lightly, but we also know that those same taxpayers, those same residents deserve good city services, and in order to do that we need to make sure that we can pay for them,” said Walsh.

The proposed budget also includes an increase in water and sewer rates.

“Our sewer rate will average out to about $15.00 per year for a single family, and a two percent water rate increase which will impact to the average ratepayer about $5.00 per year,” said Walsh.

The average city homeowner could be paying about $75.00 for the year.

The mayor is also looking to improve infrastructure, roads, and sidewalks, hoping to pave 23 miles of city roads.

“Since we have implemented our new municipal sidewalk program we have steadily increased the amount of sidewalks, new sidewalks and sidewalk repairs that we’re doing and our goal is to do 14 miles of new sidewalks,” said Walsh.

In addition to the new trash carts introduced last year, the mayor’s proposed budget expands those improvements to new covered recycling bins.

“In doing so, it will make a significant improvement to the health and safety of our workers and also a significant improvement on the aesthetics of our city reducing the litter that gets blown around on those windy nights,” said Walsh.

The city budget will be reviewed from now through April 25.

The public is invited to share their thoughts on the budget on May 1 during a public hearing.

Action on a final city budget will be taken on May 8.

Click here for more details on the 2025 budget.