The Onondaga County Legislature on Tuesday approved the county’s 2027 budget — a $1.7 billion budget that will lower the property tax rate and provide millions of dollars for housing and several pilot projects related to food access and agriculture.
Since County Executive Ryan McMahon proposed his budget in September, county legislators have held 17 meetings, questioning each county department about their expenditures.
But the big ticket item that has quietly shaped the entire negotiation — a $25 million transfer from the county’s rainy day fund to help build more housing — came in just hours before the legislature needed to vote on the budget.
In a statement introducing the budget, Ways and Means Chair Mo Brown thanked the assembled legislators for how they had handled the budget cycle. The amendments changed less than 0.06% of McMahon’s proposed budget and added no new net spending, he said.
“Legislators, this isn’t the perfect budget,” said Brown. “It’s not the executive’s budget. It’s not the legislature’s budget. It’s the people’s budget. It invests in the people today and in their future, and responsibly, I urge its adoption.”
It passed unanimously.
Late on Tuesday morning, McMahon sent over an executive initiative to transfer $35 million from the fund balance, the county’s nearly quarter-billion dollar rainy day fund. Of that, $25 million will fund ONHOME, a new limited development corporation which will provide low-to-no interest loans for developers looking to build “missing middle” housing.
That might include housing like duplexes, townhomes. The funding is meant to boost the supply of housing across income ranges.
That idea came from the Housing and Transportation Citizens Advisory Board, which was created by the legislature in the spring.
When McMahon proposed the 2027 budget, he included a local law creating ONHOME. McMahon did not provide funding for it in his executive budget, saying that he would like to fund it down the line assuming there was no “horseplay” in the budget cycle.
Democratic legislators said their caucus had known for months that McMahon was planning to provide $25 million, but that they had not been allowed to say so publicly.
Chair Nicole Watts also said she anticipates that the funding could be doubled by outside donations in two years. Brown previously told Central Current that if elected to the state assembly, he intends to leverage Onondaga County’s investment in ONHOME to ask for more money from the state.
McMahon said he had compromised with the leaders of the legislator to get this funding.
“We felt we gave a baseline that was a pretty solid start,” said McMahon. “And if there were going to be large scale changes, we weren’t going to give the executive initiative portion.
All 17 legislators voted in favor of the local law creating the LDC. But some expressed doubts about the limited amount of time to review the funding.
Minority Leader Brian May said that he wanted to support the LDC but was relying on the contractual authority of the county executive to ensure the LDC was supporting “the bigger picture and the holistic goals of this county.”
“I have every confidence it will, but as a legislator, I always want a little more oversight,” May said.
Legislator Dave Knapp asked if the legislature could require regular updates from the LDC.
The money will stay in a grant fund until ONHOME has bylaws for its operation. Only then will the money be transferred over. It will be run by a nine-person board:
- Two will be appointed by the county executive
- The legislature’s chair, minority leader, and majority leader will each appoint a board member
- The county executive will also appoint representatives of labor, finance, housing and the community. They must be approved by the legislature
Legislator Chad Ryan said he would have had trouble voting for the budget if the money had not come through. He told Central Current that if it had not, he was prepared to submit an amendment to the budget adding the $25 million. He thought there would have been enough support to pass through his caucus.
After legislator Ken Bush asked if the legislature could put the money in contingency, Chief Financial Officer Kristi Smiley said that it was possible, but that she believed McMahon would withdraw the initiative if the money were held in contingency.
Ultimately, 16 legislators voted in favor of the funding, with only Ken Bush voting against it.
An additional $7 million will go to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency to buy land around the county to turn into shovel-ready sites for Micron supply-chain companies. McMahon explained that if that land was not available in Onondaga County, the companies might decide to locate in other states or other parts of upstate New York.
“All of those are unacceptable,” McMahon said.
There will also be $1.5 million to provide low-interest loans for agriculture. McMahon said that money would mostly go to upgrading technology or stabilizing family farms. He estimated that 15 to 20 loans could come out of that money. He noted that it was a pilot program, and if it was successful, they would ask for more resources for it in the future.
Legislature Democrats have previously pushed for money from the fund balance to be used for housing.
McMahon has in the past said that the county needed a high fund balance to keep its high credit rating. This month, that rating was elevated to AA+, the second-highest possible S&P Global Rating. McMahon claims that the new rating will save the county $1 million when it goes to the bond market.
The legislature held around $3 million in contingency.
“Where we got clear answers, we funded it,” said Brown. “Where we didn’t get clear answers, we are holding it because we believe that is the right thing to do.”
County legislators are holding up McMahon’s proposed $2 million Gen Z Housing Fund pilot until there are more details on how it will be used. McMahon expressed frustration with that in a press conference after the budget passed.
Generally though, he said was comfortable with the changes the legislature had made to the budget. “There might be a couple of things we have to sleep on and maybe aren’t as comfortable, but I think for the most part we’re comfortable with those,” McMahon said.
