News - State cuts hit Saratoga Springs

At the City Council meeting Tuesday night, Mayor Scott Johnson offered an update to city residents concerning the council’s lobbying efforts at the Capital earlier that day. He said they had met with elected officials in both the state assembly and senate to discuss the matter, including taking part in a joint press conference on the steps of the Capital with six other municipalities who face losing VLT revenue.

“We met with a number of people so far and I wish we could report that it is more optimistic than it appears to be but it is not resolved yet,” he said. “We will continue our efforts to not lose that portion of our VLT aid, because we do believe we are entitled to it as a host community providing services, infrastructure, police and medical responses to the operation of the casino.”

Commissioner of Accounts John Franck said every member of the legislature they met with, Democrats and Republicans alike, all agreed with their plight, but that none of the officials could tell them what was going to happen because it was too early to know.

The reason for their inability to forecast future cuts has to do with the fact that the state and city work on two different budget calendars. The city budget is based on a calendar year, which means they have to pass a budget by Nov. 30. The state on the other hand does not have to approve their budget until March 31, 2009. It is likely that city officials will not know the outcome of the VLT aid until April, Franck said.

“Because of this we have to make some real tough choices that could potentially affect the budget,” he said.

Johnson agreed that it was an issue that would have to be factored into current and future budget discussions.

“The good news is we know a little bit about it before we have to adopt our budget for next year, but the bad news is we were so close to having a budget we could live with and now we have to go back and look at the issues,” he said.

Each member of the council championed the group’s lobbying efforts and vowed to continue to work together in order to fight for the funds they feel the city deserves.

The city of Saratoga Springs was originally set to receive around $3.3 million in VLT aid for 2008. The additional revenue currently makes up approximately 10 percent of the city’s budget.

The governor has proposed cutting half of that revenue in 2009. If aid is cut, the city could potentially lose up to $2.1 million in VLT funding because of an overpayment by the state last year. Johnson said the state is set to receive $100 million in VLT revenue over the course of the next year from the Saratoga Gaming and Raceway.

“Our services provide a lot of revenue to the state so we feel that it is not out of line for us to ask for 4 percent of that revenue,” he said

Aside from their own efforts to keep VLT revenue funneling into the city, officials also urged members of the community to send letters to elected officials.

“It is going to be up to you to lobby your legislature on this issue because in the end you are going to be affected either because we will have to raise taxes to continue to provide services or cut those services,” Ron Kim, Commissioner of Public Safety, said. “We need to pull together not only as a City Council but as a community.”

Commissioner of Finance Ken Ivins said that the city would work to get a list of contacts up on the website along with key talking points to help people better understand who they should be contacting and what issues they should be discussing.

“They might not read every email but they remember how many are coming in,” he said.