Carmella’s 2027 budget raises the city tax bill on a home assessed at $150,000 by $85. She calls it “a modest 3.4%.” It stays that modest because of what the budget leaves out.
Every year, Troy pays for overtime, comp-time buyouts, lawsuits, injured workers, retiree health care, and snow removal. This budget sets aside about $2.1 million less for them than they cost in 2025. It also assumes about 40 city jobs will sit empty all year and counts their unpaid salaries, $2.53 million, as savings.
Paying the known costs honestly would add about 7% to the property tax levy, on top of this year’s increase.
Carmella is making the choice to keep vital city jobs vacant in order to maintain the appearance of a balanced budget.
The Rate She Proposed
That $150,000 home would sell for about $298,000. Here is what its city tax bill has done under Carmella:
| Budget | Tax rate increase | City tax on a home assessed at $150,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.89% | $2,432 |
| 2026 | 1.95% | $2,480 |
| 2027 (proposed) | 3.42% | $2,565 |
Last year’s 1.95% wasn’t the full cost either. Carmella covered $2 million of the city’s debt payment from savings to maintain the minimal tax increase. The 2027 budget puts most of that bill back on the levy, which is part of why this year’s increase is larger.
Her message says the budget “stays under the state tax-cap.” The cap limits the levy, the total the city collects. The levy rises 2.8%. The rate, which sets your bill, rises 3.42%, because Troy’s taxable property shrank $10.4 million while tax-exempt property grew $22 million.
How Troy Compares
Her message also says Troy’s rate “remains significantly below those of our surrounding communities.”
It doesn’t. Raw tax rates can’t be compared from city to city, because every city assesses property differently. Troy’s assessments were last at full market value in 2018. City Assessor Sharon Martin told the Council on October 15 that they now sit at 50.3% of what property would sell for. Albany assesses at 96%. Saratoga Springs, 40.5%.
The State Comptroller converts every city’s rate to full market value so they can be compared:
| City | City tax per $1,000 of market value | Taxable property per resident | City property tax per resident |
|---|---|---|---|
| Troy | $9.76 | $60,844 | $594 |
| Albany | $8.49 | $78,380 | $665 |
| Schenectady | $8.22 | $61,685 | $507 |
| Saratoga Springs | $2.89 | $301,802 | $871 |
Troy’s rate is higher. Troy doesn’t take more. Split each city’s property tax across its residents: Troy raises $594 a person. Albany raises $665. Saratoga Springs, $871.
The rate is high because the base is thin. Troy has $61,000 in taxable property per resident. Saratoga Springs has $302,000. Nearly half of Troy’s property pays no tax at all: the colleges, the hospitals, the churches, the government buildings.
Among 18 New York cities we compared, Troy has the fifth-least taxable property per resident. It also has no fiscal stress designation from the State Comptroller. Albany is rated in significant stress. Schenectady is rated susceptible.
Troy raises little from a thin base. That is exactly why its budget can’t afford to hide costs. A city with Saratoga’s base can absorb a $2 million surprise. Troy can’t.
The Cushion
The contingency fund is “healthy.” Contingency is the city’s cushion for the unexpected: a hard winter, a lawsuit, a revenue shortfall. Carmella proposes $500,000, half of what the city carried in 2024. In August, the city drew $1 million from its savings to cover General Fund spending.
“Increase of our city’s budget surplus to $1.2 million.” On May 7, the City Comptroller presented the 2025 year-end results: a General Fund surplus of $453,000. The report the city filed with the State Comptroller shows $752,068. The two figures don’t match each other. Neither is $1.2 million, and the budget book doesn’t say where $1.2 million comes from.
Carmella repeated both claims at the Council’s first budget hearing on October 15: a $1.2 million surplus and a contingency fund that is “very healthy.” Then the City Auditor, the Council’s own staff, asked the Administration to confirm the city’s reserves on the record. Deputy Mayor Seamus Donnelly called it “a political charade.” Officials said they had not come prepared for questions about the city’s annual financial report.
The same night, Donnelly explained why December’s raises for non-union staff weren’t in the 2026 budget: “We don’t budget for those increases until they become, you know, bargained or real.”
The overtime is real. So are the lawsuits and the workers’ compensation claims. Troy pays them every year. They aren’t in this budget either.
The Administration’s presentation called the budget “a living document.” A thin cushion, a surplus figure nobody can find, and $2.1 million in costs left out. When the overtime comes due, it comes out of savings.
What to Ask
- What would the 2027 budget cost with overtime, claims, and workers’ compensation budgeted at what they actually cost?
- Where does the $1.2 million surplus figure come from?
- Show the written tax cap calculation and explain why taxable property fell $10.4 million.
- Which properties came off the tax rolls this year?
Trojans can weigh what a city costs. They need to see the real number to do it.
Partisan angle: Carmella calls 3.4% modest, and it is, because the real costs aren’t in it. Troy already raises less per resident than Albany or Saratoga Springs. We can have an honest conversation about what a good city costs. It starts with an honest budget.
Sources: City of Troy, 2027 Proposed Budget (Mayor’s message, pp. 1, 3; tax rate and levy, p. 11; contingency, p. 89; Debt Service Fund, p. 255); City of Troy, 2024 to 2026 Adopted Budgets (tax rate pages: 2024, p. 7; 2025, p. 9; 2026, p. 14; contingency: 2024, p. 83); Troy City Council Finance Meeting, May 7, 2026 (2025 Annual Financial Report); Troy City Council Finance Meeting, August 20, 2026 (Ordinance 36, $1 million from unassigned fund balance); Troy City Council Finance Committee budget hearing, October 15, 2026 (Mayor’s remarks, City Auditor exchange, City Assessor on the equalization rate); City of Troy 2025 Annual Financial Report filed with the NYS Comptroller; NYS Comptroller, 2026 Local Government Tax Data and Fiscal Stress Monitoring System, 2025; NYS Department of Taxation and Finance, Equalization Rates; U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts (2020 Census population)