THE FULL McGRATH

Please publish to set the record straight. This is councilman Mark McGrath, 435 8th avenue Troy, NY. Phone 518 339-8436. Thanks




Troy's Garbage Tax

A large crowd attended the April 19th Troy City Council Finance Committee meeting to voice their displeasure with the recent garbage tax. Some confusion was apparent as some speakers were asking the council "how could you do this"?  Please allow me to set the record straight.
 The garbage tax – and make no mistake, this is a tax - was concocted by the mayor and deputy mayor as a way to balance the 2018 budget.  The impetus for it dates back to the 2017 budget negotiations in late 2016.  Many people will remember that the mayor and deputy mayor wanted a 28.5% tax increase for the 2017 budget.   After significant negotiations, that increase was reduced to 14.5%.  I cast the deciding vote on that budget, but I was extremely vocal in warning the administration that they would have to learn how to manage city funds better as I would not be casting a vote for such a large increase again.

 Unfortunately, the administration did not learn to live within their means, and even hired additional political appointees knowing there was not enough money available to justify it.  Of course, this led to another large budget gap going into the 2018 fiscal year.

 Six votes (when we still had a nine member council) were needed to override the tax cap for the 2018 budget, as had been done in 2017.  Mayor Madden knew that there was no way he could drum up enough support to approve a tax cap override for another double digit tax increase.  Thus, the mayor and deputy mayor’s decision to institute a solid waste management “fee” (tax).  The addition of this tax allowed them to collect an additional 2.2 million dollars as a separate source of funding so they could balance their budget within the tax cap limit.  This path required only five votes, rather than a super majority of six.  All five outgoing council members – Democrats and Republicans alike – voted to approve the garbage tax.  Kim McPherson, Jim Gulli, Carmella Mantello, and I voted no.

 Adding an additional lack of transparency (something that seems to define this administration), the vote was held on December 29th, at a hastily called meeting on the Friday night between Christmas and New Year’s.  I can assure you it was hotly contested among the three current Republican council members and Ms. McPherson, who still cared enough to do the right thing despite the fact it was her last meeting as a council member, having lost her seat due to the recent charter revisions.

In the last few weeks, the bills for the garbage tax were sent out.  Many residents were caught off guard and upset. The mayor and his tax payer funded spokesman put a message on the City of Troy website announcing "In 2017, the City Council approved the implementation of a solid waste management fee for the City of Troy.”  I guess technically the Troy City Council did in fact approve this “fee”, but his statement misleads residents into thinking that the current council members approved this move.  Mayor Madden’s announcement is nothing short of cowardly. What kind of leader tries to deflect responsibility for additional fees imposed due to the sub-par budget he created onto others?

 The sad fact is that the solid waste management fee is simply an additional cost for the same service you have received for years as part of the taxes we all pay.  And the kicker is that the tax rate was not reduced with the addition of this new fee meaning we are now paying twice for the same service.  A double tax, if you will.

 The mayor, deputy mayor and their tax payer-funded mouthpiece have claimed this will help the city to participate more in recycling.  This has been the mantra over and over, yet the plan – created in haste and with little creativity – does nothing of the sort.  Had the administration accepted my suggestion that the garbage fee be directly related to the number of garbage bins put out each week, the incentive to recycle would definitely have increased.  Instead, they stuck with their original lazy plan, created for no other purpose than to collect more taxpayer money, with the caveat that it would be revisited in a year.  Unfortunately, my experience with members of this administration does not give me hope that they will be true to their word on that, and with a democratic majority on the council I believe you can expect to see this become a new additional tax for years to come.

 The story the administration has peddled to the press could not be further from the truth.  The council may have approved this, but not the current council.  The garbage and recyclables are being picked up and processed the same as they always have been, yet there was no reduction to the main budget to account for the new tax being imposed on residents.  And the current plan provides absolutely no incentive to recycle.  Every talking point created to justify this move is inaccurate.

 I can’t stress enough – this was a money grab envisioned and implemented by the administration to balance the budget without having to rely on getting enough votes to exceed the tax cap.  It is just one more financial burden on the taxpayers of this city and is especially unfair to people with limited incomes and seniors who put out far less garbage than the average home.

 At the meeting on the 19th I publicly confronted the mayor and deputy mayor, and explained to the large crowd who attended the meeting they had been misled and deceived by this group. I’m still waiting for an explanation from them.  I say this somewhat facetiously since this particular administration has become known for bending the truth and going silent when asked to explain their reasoning.

 The mayor will be attending neighborhood meetings to "explain the trash fee".  I'd be willing to attend and sit across from the mayor, deputy mayor and their taxpayer funded spokesman and explain what really drove this garbage tax. If you think three on one is a disadvantage, remember - I have the great equalizer, the truth.

Mark McGrath
Troy City Council
District II