First Step Towards Solution for City and School District

A tax shortfall of over a million dollars has caused headaches for the City of Utica and the School District. The two sides have gone back and forth trying to come up with a solution. Tonight the council committee approved a plan for the school district to take out a revenue anticipation note of $1.3 million that the City must pay back within a year.

                Councilman Joseph Marino says, "The whole deal is the taxpayers are going to be responsible for all this eventually anyway. So the least burden on the taxpayers was the proposal that we provided and that the school board accepted."

            Councilwoman Samantha Colosimo-Testa says, "I think the finance committee really like the agreement. I mean it's not in the best interest of the taxpayer and everybody in general, but it's something that will work and something that the City and the School District can work with."

                         According to the council the school district's interest rate would be lower - ultimately making this the cheapest way possible for the taxpayers. Many agree that this proposal will save the most money and have little effect on credit ratings.

                Councilman Marino says, "This is a minor impact to the City's credit rating, I mean everything that we do affects our credit rating. I mean that's no secret, everyone knows that we're in tough financial times so this doesn't really put too much of a strain on us"

                This was the first step towards a solution but it's not a done deal yet. Councilwoman Colosimo-Testa added, "Until we get the actually binding agreement, full contract signed by the School District and the City of Utica I think more questions should be asked and more answers should be answered. So we'll wait until we get the actually contract, the binding contract to figure out where we're going from there."