Author: Thomas Dimopoulos

SARATOGA SPRINGS —With one eye on the city’s current annual spending plan of approximately $61.3 million and another on the upcoming sessions to determine financial allocations for 2025, Saratoga Springs Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi has initiated a discussion detailing the yearly revenue and expense practice.      

“Since we’re just getting into the start of the budget season, I thought I would explain how some of the finances work for our city,” Commissioner Sanghvi said.   

“One of the main sources of revenue for our city is property tax – a fixed source of income; sales tax – which is variable and goes up and down with the economy; mortgage tax – which is highly variable, and occupancy tax – which is dependent on the number of rooms we have in the city,” she said.  Additional income revenues come from ambulance transport fees, various city fees, and federal and state aid. 

The total annual revenues – anticipated at $61.3 million this year – have increased in recent years, rising from $41.3 million received in 2020 to $56.1 million received in 2023.  

Sales Tax 

“A large part of this increase is sales tax, (increasing) from about $11 million in 2020 to close to $19.5 million today,” Sanghvi said. The 7% sales tax rate is divided in this way: 4% goes to the state, 1.5% goes to Saratoga County, and 1.5% to the city of Saratoga Springs. 

Sales tax revenue in 2004 is anticipated at $19.5 million, up $1.1 million from 2023.  

Real Property Tax and Mortgage Tax

Real property tax is collected quarterly. “We have about 247 parcels (amounting to about $3.1 million) that are delinquent,” the commissioner said. “We’ve been working tirelessly to get those monies back, but overall we have more than 95% rate of the paying of property taxes. We are doing much better than some other places.” 

According to an article published in 2022 by the National Association of Realtors, the average tax delinquency rate in New York State was 9% (or 91% paid), with a handful of states – Mississippi, Delaware, New Jersey and Massachusetts among them, climbing higher than 10% (less than 90% paid).      

Saratoga Springs typically collects just over $17 million annually in real property taxes. 

Mortgage Tax revenue in the city peaked at about $2.1 million in 2021 and 2022, slid down to $1.7 million in 2023 and is anticipated to be $1.5 million this year.  

Hotel Occupancy Tax

“Hotel occupancy has gone up significantly since 2021 from $587,00 to $850,000,” Sanghvi said. “This is 6% occupancy tax of which the City Center gets 2%, Discover Saratoga gets 2%, the county gets 1% and we (the city of Saratoga Springs) get 1%.”

Other Fees

In 2022, the city collected just under $1.8 million in ambulance transport fees. After a second ambulance was added in late 2022, nearly $2.2 million was collected the following year with an estimated $2.3 million budgeted in 2024.  Other city fees vary depending on demand and include items such as licenses, permits and departmental fees, and typically bring in about $2.8 million annually.  

Federal and State Aid varies each year. State Aid has returned roughly $4.5 – $5.5 million each year over the past handful of years; Federal Aid has varied from $4 million each in 2021 and 2022, to $500,000 in 2023 and an anticipated $1.2 million in 2024. This aid includes VLT, CHIPS, and revenue sharing via the state, and Federal FEMA and ARPA funds – the latter of which accounts for the bump in aid in 2021 and 2022. 

Where Does The
Money Go?

“So, we’re making all this money, where does all the money go?” Sanghvi said. “Our expenses have gone up from $44 million (in 2020) to $61 million (currently) – a significant rise in expenses. Most of it is personnel,” she said, pointing to an increase in personnel costs from under $25 million in 2020 to over $33 million in 2024.  “A large chunk of it is in Public Safety, but other departments have also seen increases.”

 Hospitalization rates and benefits, as well as Police and Fire Department retirement costs have also increased. “It’s not just that we have more people, the rates have also gone up, and this is nationwide.”    

The cost of liability insurance has increased from $900,000 in 2020 to $2 million this year, an increase, the commissioner said, largely due to costs related to the attorney general’s investigation, ongoing litigation, and the aftermath renovation of the 2018 City Hall fire. Utility costs are also on the rise nationwide. “There’s an increase in the price of energy but we are working on ways to lower utilities and are constantly looking at Green opportunities and grants to try and lower costs.”  

The recent past has seen a growth in both revenues and expenses, as well as the addition of new services Sanghvi said. Among those added services: the city’s new east side fire station (an $8.6 million Capital Expense); Veteran’s Memorial Park (which cost more than $850,000), and addressing the city’s homelessness issue, which counts a combined cost of about $500,000 in funding related to the RISE Adelphi street shelter, Shelters of Saratoga, and the homeless court. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS —The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame is seeking concept approval from the city Design Review Board for a mural to celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2025. 

The museum board has selected Saratoga Springs-based artist Celeste Susany for the project and the proposed mural will go on a wall on the Ludlow Street side of the museum. Susany and the museum are applying for a Support for Artists Grant from the NYS Council on the Arts to underwrite the project, according to documents filed with the city. 

The proposed mural, in full color scale, would be applied directly upon the museum’s brick wall with paint. The wall’s dimensions are 57 feet, 6 inches in length, by 13 feet, 8 inches in height.    

SARATOGA SPRINGS – City officers and employees are entitled to legal defense related to claims  made against them and alleged to have occurred while they were on official business. 

An Article in City Code enacted by the City Council in 1987 provides for the legal defense of city officers and employees should state or federal legal action arise related to an alleged act or omission that took place in the scope of official duty or public employment. 

This week the City Council began discussions aimed at potentially attempting to establish detailed policies for the documentation and processing of future requests made by city officers and employees. 

“We have been challenged to come up, as soon as possible, with a resolution to clarify our policy with regard to these issues” Saratoga Springs Mayor John Safford said this week. “We are working to come up with a resolution that will be acceptable to everyone and give us some guidance as we move into the future.” 

Some of the suggested policies were posted in advance of the July 16 City Council meeting, although it was unclear how many of the council members were involved in crafting the policies suggested.  

The suggested polices would include submitting in writing to the city attorney a statement containing hourly rates proposed by the employee’s legal defense team as well as an estimate of total fees, charges and other expenses. The proposal would then be considered at a public meeting with the council charged with authorizing payment for the services to begin. A Special Public Meeting may be called if a situation requires urgency to address the matter.  Should the amount exceed the estimate as the work progresses, a separate review and approval need to take place prior to those services taking place. 

It is anticipated the council will return to discussion regarding the matter in future meetings.    

SARATOGA SPRINGS – The newly implemented seasonal parking program, which charges non-city residents up to $2 per hour to park in city owned parking garages and lots has thus far generated approximately $82,000 in new revenue. 

“We are still ramping up,” DPW Commissioner Jason Golub said this week. “We’ve only had one week into the track season, and I hope to see revenues continue to increase.”

The installation of pay stations as part of the seasonal parking program got underway in mid-June and will run through Labor Day. The pay plan is in effect in three city-owned parking garages – Walton/Woodlawn Parking Garage, Woodlawn Ave. Parking Garage, and Putnam St. Parking Garage, and three city surface parking lots – specifically located at Woodlawn Ave., Spring Street, and High Rock. 

“The launch was a bit chaotic, but I don’t have an issue with it and it was bound to happen,” says Dave Barker of Impressions of Saratoga – which is celebrating its 45th year in the Spa City.  

City residents, as well as downtown businesses and their employees, are allowed to park in the pay station areas without cost, via a permitting process. 

“As an employee, I don’t have to pay for parking and I appreciate they’re doing that for the employees downtown,” said Jericha Harriman, store lead at Northshire Bookstore on Broadway.   

The city has issued 11, 256 parking permits – and of those are 3,300 business permits, Golub said. A total of 266 businesses have registered for permits. The Saratoga Springs Public Library has also recently gone to a paid parking plan as well regarding its 75-or-so available spaces in its lot just off Henry Street.  

Not everyone is pleased with the seasonal paid parking plan. John Nemjo, owner of Broadway’s Saratoga Outdoors – formerly Mountainman Outdoor Supply Company, and its sister store Life is Good Saratoga, has been in Saratoga Springs for more than 15 years. Nemjo was opposed to the seasonal parking plan since its conception and says he hasn’t seen anything to change his opinion. 

“A lot of people in Saratoga have avoided downtown for years during track season and this is just another incentive for people to not come downtown,” says Nemjo, adding that sales are down since June and attributing that downtick, at least in part, to the paid parking format implemented in city owned lots and garages. He also expressed displeasure with the lack of a clarity indicating that the program is operational only during the summer months.  

“All people know is: there’s paid parking in Saratoga Springs. We have a year-round customer base of locals who live in Saratoga Springs and locals who live beyond the city limits, the core and the bread-and-butter of this city’s retail community. All these people in surrounding communities – they don’t get free parking passes,” Nemjo says. “We’re locally supported 12 months a year, and you’re chasing those people away.”   

The City Council unanimously approved the plan in April, and the city anticipates nearly $1.6 million as first-year estimated revenue, with about $450,000 in expenses.

“We will continue to monitor the program through the summer and work with the DBA (Downtown Business Association), the City Council and residents on making sure that we understand where we’ve done a good job, and where we’ve done not such a good job and can make improvements,” Commissioner Golub said, crediting the city’s Public Works and Public Safety departments for getting the plan up and running in short order.   

When the seasonal parking program concludes in September, the pay machines will be removed.  

Residents or downtown businesses seeking a parking permit are directed to go to the city’s website – at saratoga-springs.org – or physically visit the Department of Public Works office at City Hall. Library patrons are directed to visit sspl.org to review the library’s permit process.