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Mayor Ben Walsh announced plans to hire more police officers, expand the city’s technology programs and create an organization to help maintain housing conditions in his 2022 city budget presentation on April 8.

Syracuse’s total budget for 2022 is $264.9 million, Walsh announced in his “Road to Recovery” presentation. About $20.7 million comes from federal COVID-19 relief, which allocates $651 billion to cities across the United States.

“We’ve been through an incredibly challenging year,” Walsh said.

Walsh introduced the High-Occupancy Monitoring and Enforcement unit, a new coalition made up of different departments — such as law, code, fire, police and neighborhood or business development — focused on maintaining building codes to protect Syracuse residents living in low-income housing. The city first announced HOME in response to the murder of Connie Tuori, a 93-year-old woman living in Skyline Apartments.

The city is not going to increase Syracuse property taxes in 2022, according to the budget plan.

Syracuse will allocate the same amount of the budget to public safety as last year overall, but the money will go toward ongoing reform efforts focused on community engagement, Walsh said.

The city plans to hire two new classes of police officers and one new class of firefighters in 2022 due to an increased retirement rate in both departments, according to Walsh. The police department will launch its first class in July.

Some funds will also go toward critical crime and safety programs, as well as reinstating ShotSpotter, a tool used to help officers locate gunshots. The city halted the program last year due to budget cuts from the pandemic.
The budget also focuses heavily on developing parks and green space.

“I know personally over the past year I have gained a renewed appreciation for our parks and open spaces,” Walsh said.

The Parks and Recreation Department received funding to hire a new staff member to maintain the Onondaga Creekwalk — one of the newly opened trails in Syracuse — and other trails in the city.

The city will also install two new playgrounds at Grace Massena Park and at the Onondaga Geddes Playlot. The department received funding to open seven outdoor public pools this summer as well, but the Bernadette Park pool will remain closed due to maintenance.

“All pools that we are able to open, will be open,” Walsh said.

The Department of Public Works received funding to hire additional staff to work on city litter cleanup and create a municipal sidewalk program that will help restore city sidewalks.

Walsh also said the government is allocating some money to increase information technology in the city by 50%.

Some of the funding will cover “Balancing Act,” a budgeting tool that allows citizens to simulate the municipal budget division using real numbers from Syracuse. Walsh said he hopes that this tool will lead to greater citizen engagement and “empower residents to participate” in the city budgeting process.

“Syracuse (will) be a growing city, embrace diversity and create opportunity for all,” Walsh said.

Published on April 11, 2021 at 10:57 pm

Contact Ashley: aeclemen@syr.edu