County Executive Ryan McMahon’s proposed 2027 budget included a tax rate decrease while funding new initiatives to support housing development, food pantries and airport upgrades.
McMahon said his proposed $1.7 billion budget was based on “responsibility, momentum, partnership, and the belief that our best days are not behind us, but yet, in front of us.”
If passed, this is the ninth year in a row that Onondaga County would cut the property tax rate. The rate will drop from $2.93 for every $1,000 to $2.67 for every $1,000.
The tax cuts come even as county expenses are squeezed. County officials expect to spend more money on energy and health insurance than they expected.
The county is able to balance its 2026 budget without dipping into its savings because of Micron, McMahon said. The company injected $1 billion into the Onondaga County economy in 2026, meaning the county’s sales tax has been nearly double what was expected, McMahon said.
While McMahon has for nine years reduced the property tax rate, rising property values mean that county residents may see their property taxes rise. The county will be spending an extra $100 million in 2027 than in 2026 if McMahon’s budget is approved.
“I will say, if we did not have the semiconductor cluster going on right now, this would have been a different story,” said McMahon.
One piece of the budget came directly from the legislature’s priorities. The proposed budget includes a local law which would create a Local Development Corporation for housing. That proposal was one of the main ideas to come out of the county legislature’s Housing and Transportation Citizen Advisory Board. Among other things, it would provide zero-to-low interest loans to developers looking to build missing middle housing in the county.
The LDC would allow for both private and public seed funding, and because it would give loans instead of grants, the money would be able to rotate through sustainably.
McMahon’s proposed budget would create the LDC, but the funding will come later. McMahon said the executive branch will develop and present a new Plan Onondaga implementation plan to present to the legislature in the coming weeks. Funding the LDC “could potentially” be at the heart of the implementation plan, he told the legislators during the budget presentation.
He said the LDC could create an additional 1,000 housing units in the county.
McMahon told reporters that there were things he needed to see in the budget too. He added that the 17 legislators did not know how to operate county government better than the executive branch.
“If there’s going to be a lot of changes and horseplay, then obviously we can’t play offense,” McMahon said.
Legislature Chair Nicole Watts, when asked about McMahon’s comments, said that every budget was a negotiation.
McMahon’s budget included several other new investments, including:
- Childcare support to an additional 1,000 families
- A $250,000 pilot program which would allow the county to buy discounted produce from local farms to then be donated to food banks
- A $2 million Gen Z down payment and closing cost assistance program, aimed to help 200 residents become first time homebuyers
- A $1.5 million investment in the airport, seeded with room occupancy tax funding in the hopes the state will give more in the future
- New caseworkers for suburban school districts, similar to a program that already exists for Syracuse city schools
The proposed budget will also include continued investments in early childhood education programs, senior center infrastructure grants, and more, McMahon said.
The county legislature will now have the opportunity to review the budget over the coming weeks. Over several weeks, they will meet with county departments to ask questions, and will eventually put out their own report. There will be a public hearing before the legislature votes to approve the budget in October.
The legislature is able to cut the budget and make adjustments to where finances are being directed without the executive. But McMahon would have veto power if they chose to add money to the budget.
Ways and Means Chair Maurice “Mo” Brown said he was glad the county had been able to keep the budget reasonable given the increases in the cost of living. Both the legislature and the executive expressed a desire to limit tax increases while still providing services to county residents.
Watts said that she was grateful to hear the themes of housing, food access, and investments in people and community represented in the budget presentation. As the legislature had not seen the budget before the presentation, she said they are now looking at the budget books to “what that actually translates to in numbers.”
Watts said there were already a couple of places where they might need to make amendments, but that she was hopeful the necessary amendments were limited and that the legislative and executive branches could work together.
Majority Leader Nodesia Hernandez said she was glad to see added money for daycare and for mental health in schools.
“I think childhood poverty improves as the county as a whole improves,” said Hernandez.
The county executive said at the beginning of his budget presentation that the county’s childhood poverty rates and lead poisoning rates were going down. The childhood poverty rate has at times been among the highest in the nation.
“I don’t believe that in most cases we need more resources. We just need to use those resources in a more strategically implemented way,” Watts said, explaining that the next step was ensuring that the money was being used efficiently to meet community needs. “So we’re not just addressing a crisis at the moment, but building a future that [childhood poverty] is not a reality for children in the future.”
Read more of Central Current’s coverage
County Executive Ryan McMahon’s proposed 2027 budget: new housing initiatives, food pantry support and airport upgrades
The Onondaga County Legislature will hold weeks of budget hearings before the legislative body votes on whether to approve the budget.
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