Carmella’s 2027 budget assumes $2.53 million in city salaries will never be paid. The jobs are on the books. The money to fill them is not.
The budget calls it “salary savings.” It means the city expects positions to sit empty all year. That is about 40 city workers’ pay, written out of the budget before the year begins.
Troy has never budgeted this much on empty jobs. The 2027 figure is $1.05 million higher than this year’s, the largest one-year jump since at least 2016.
Every Mayor Did It. Not Like This.
Budgeting for some vacancies is normal. People retire, quit, and take time to replace. Troy’s mayors have always counted on a little of that.
| Budget | Mayor | Salary savings | Share of payroll |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Rosamilia | $339,218 | 1.2% |
| 2019 | Madden | $41,225 | 0.1% |
| 2022 | Madden | $416,512 | 1.2% |
| 2024 | Madden | $1,130,166 | 3.2% |
| 2025 | Mantello | $1,411,605 | 3.9% |
| 2026 | Mantello | $1,473,332 | 3.7% |
| 2027 (proposed) | Mantello | $2,528,108 | 6.2% |
For five years under Madden it was under 1 percent of payroll. It started climbing in his last budgets. Carmella’s 2027 budget nearly doubles it. One of every 16 dollars budgeted for permanent salaries now assumes the job stays empty.
Where the Empty Jobs Are
Police and fire are exempt from her hiring pause. The empty jobs land everywhere else.
Parks: $311,000. The largest vacancy credit in the city. Parks has 13 positions. The money left for salaries covers about half of them. Parks also has a new aquatic center to run. Carmella’s own message counts more than 9,000 check-ins in its first two months.
Planning: $179,000. Planning reviews development, runs the city’s environmental review, and manages Monument Square, a $21.95 million project in this year’s capital plan. The department has been without a Planning Commissioner since Randy Coburn left. In September, Deputy Mayor Seamus Donnelly told the Council’s Planning Committee the search had drawn few applicants. Planning’s budget drops by a third.
Water and sewer: $565,000. The treatment plant, the water mains, and the sewer crews carry $565,000 in vacancy credits between them. These are the people who keep the water safe and fix a broken main at any hour.
Front-line jobs wait. Meanwhile, the budget carries a new Deputy Director of General Services ($74,675) and a new Private Secretary to the Deputy Mayor ($43,260). It also creates a new full-time Deputy Corporation Counsel at $87,524, then cancels it out with an $87,524 “salary savings” entry: a job created and budgeted to stay empty in the same line.
The Work Doesn’t Wait
An empty job does not mean the work goes away. It means someone else does it, usually on overtime.
And overtime is the other cost this budget leaves out. Every one of these lines ran over budget in 2025, and every one is budgeted below what it cost:
| Cost | 2025 spent | 2027 proposed | Budgeted short by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire overtime | $2,370,425 | $1,675,000 | $695,425 |
| Police overtime | $1,912,387 | $1,480,000 | $432,387 |
| Police comp-time buyouts | $598,722 | $200,000 | $398,722 |
| Lawsuits and claims | $266,509 | $100,000 | $166,509 |
| Workers’ compensation | $642,734 | $500,000 | $142,734 |
| Retiree health insurance | $7,901,430 | $7,812,093 | $89,337 |
| Snow removal materials | $460,988 | $375,000 | $85,988 |
| Municipal court costs | $183,384 | $100,000 | $83,384 |
That is about $2.1 million in costs the city already knows it will pay. Street maintenance overtime cost $159,518 in 2025 and is budgeted at $120,000. Water and sewer overtime is budgeted below what it cost in each of the last two years.
At the August quarterly report, the Administration said temporary and part-time staffing was up about 20 percent this year, partly from a new part-time streets crew and seasonal parks staff. The same report said overtime was up citywide, and the Deputy Mayor warned the Council to expect a budget transfer before snow season.
The budget balances because the empty jobs pay for the overtime. It only works as long as nobody gets hired.
A Pause Nobody Voted On
“I have directed City departments and staff to pause hiring for positions outside of police officers and firefighters, while evaluating any potential new hires on a case-by-case basis.”
That is Carmella’s budget message. It is the first time the pause appears anywhere. It never came before the Council. No list says which jobs it holds open.
Case by case means Carmella decides, one vacancy at a time, which city services get thinner. The parks crew, the water plant, the planning office: none of it shows up as a cut in the budget. It shows up as slower service: parks kept by half a crew, development reviews with no commissioner, and water crews working short.
What an Honest Budget Would Show
If those jobs get filled, the budget comes up short. If they don’t, the services do. Either way, the real cost of running Troy is not in this budget.
The Council should ask for three things before it votes:
- A list of every position the $2.53 million in salary savings assumes will stay empty.
- The hiring pause in writing, with the jobs it covers and an exception process for public health and safety, starting with water treatment.
- Overtime, claims, and workers’ compensation budgeted at what they actually cost.
Running Troy costs what it costs. Trojans can decide what they are willing to pay for. They can’t decide on a budget that hides the bill in empty jobs.
Partisan angle: Carmella’s hiring pause holds open the jobs that mow the parks, run the water plant, and review development, while her own office adds an aide and General Services adds a deputy. The Council never voted on it. We will ask for the list.
Sources: City of Troy, 2027 Proposed Budget (Mayor’s message, pp. 3, 5; department personnel summary pages, including Parks, pp. 138 to 141; Planning, p. 158; Purification, p. 226; Transmission, p. 231; Sanitary Sewers, p. 249; Mayor, p. 27; General Services, p. 66; Fire, p. 109; Police, p. 94; Street Maintenance, p. 127; Judgments and Claims, p. 86; Workers’ Compensation, p. 167; Retiree Health, p. 169; Snow Removal, p. 132; Municipal Court, p. 23); City of Troy, 2016 to 2026 Adopted Budgets (salary savings by year); Troy City Council Finance Meeting, August 20, 2026 (Q2 financial report); Troy City Council Planning Committee, September 17, 2026