Comment on Report: Albany can save money by cutting police, fire, among others

PFM's recommendations to increase revenue and cut expenses — some of which Albany is already implementing — include putting purchasing and payroll under one department, increasing sponsorship for special events or scaling back to meet available funding, sharing services with other localities and determining appropriate tax status for nonprofits. To ensure that revenues keep pace with natural expenditure growth," the report states, "the city should regularly increase property taxes to the state-permitted cap. Shea said discussion of hiking taxes must take into account the distribution of aid to other upstate cities that rely on a larger percentage of state aid to balance their budgets. Albany gets a $15 million from a payment in lieu of taxes for Empire State Plaza — separate from the state aid that all cities receive. The capital city was required to complete a deeper dive into its finances after Albany last year closed a $12.5 million budget gap with a spin-up — an advance on payments the state owes the city for the state plaza.