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ALBANY COUNTY LEGISLATURE

COUNTY OF ALBANY
STATE OF NEW YORK

March 17th, 2016

Members of the Albany Common Council

City Hall
24 Eagle Street
Albany, New York 12207

Dear Members of the City of Albany Common Council:

We write today not only as duly elected officials, but also in our capacities as leaders in our
respective communities, concerned about our city and its well-being. We comprise members
from both uptown and downtown communities, diverse in population, ethnicity, and socioeconomic standing.
The City of Albany is in dire financial straits. Expenditures for costs such as health-care and
pension contributions for the workforce continue to increase, complicating and reducing any
savings the city realizes through streamlining services and other cost cutting initiatives. Making
matters worse, as we all know, a significant amount of real property located in Albany is taxexempt, limiting the amount of revenue the City can realize through real property taxes.
Fortunately, Governor Cuomo has recognized our Citys fiscal condition and pledged a spinup of $12.5 million in committed state aid from Albanys payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT)
program for the empire state plaza.
Unfortunately, despite this commitment by the State, as part of the 2016 city budget, a new
municipal tax is nonetheless being assessed and forced on a specific segment of Albanys
population, namely those who own and live in multi-family dwellings between 2-4 units for
garbage removal. In our view, this tax is discriminatory and should be immediately repealed.
Tenant advocacy groups and landlord associations are in full agreement on this issue. The trash
tax is completely arbitrary and fundamentally unfair. Moreover, the tax does nothing to
encourage individuals to decrease the amount of solid waste they produce or encourage

recycling. It is an illogical flat tax that will hurt families who can least afford increases in their
cost of living expenses.
It is for these reasons we strongly support Councilman Krashers Local Law B - 2016 repealing
the garbage tax moving forward. If the City wishes to raise revenue off the collection of solid
waste, in our view the issue should be looked at in a more holistic and comprehensive manner.
Thank you for your time and consideration to this matter. We look forward to working with you
in ways possible to accomplish this goal.
Sincerely,

Luci McKnight

Mert Simpson

Lucille McKnight, 1st District

Merton Simpson, 2nd District

Wanda Willingham

Norma Chapman

Wanda Willingham, 3rd District

Norma J. Chapman, 4th District

Chris Higgins

Doug Bullock

Christopher T. Higgins, 5th District

Doug Bullock, 7th District

Gary Domalewicz

Frank Commisso

Gary Domalewicz, 10th District

Frank Commisso, 12th District

Ray Joyce
Raymond Joyce, 13th District