Former Mayor Speaks on Economic Development
Focus on a Balanced Budget
By Simon Eskow

Times were tough for the city of Troy. Nobody expected it to survive. But just as the city’s 58,000 citizens felt most under siege, they found a man to help.

Before you get the wrong impression, the man in question wasn’t Eric Bana in the role of Hector, and this wasn’t the Troy of Homer’s Iliad.

It was New York State Deputy Comptroller Mark Pattison, who from 1996 to 2003 served as mayor of the Troy that sits at the mouth of the Erie Canal in the Hudson Valley.

“The reason I ran for mayor of Troy was it was proclaimed by the Wall Street Journal to be the most financially stressed city in the U.S.,” Pattison said during his keynote presentation at a June conference. When Pattison entered office, the city was $20 million in the red, and the state financial control board had given him 30 days to balance the budget. The challenge to save Troy proved too great for the area resident to pass up.

Pattison told attendees at the Foundation for Accounting Education’s Governmental Accounting and Auditing Conference that when he left office, Troy enjoyed a $7 million budget surplus and saw a rejuvenated waterfront.

Pattison’s experience served as the basis for his presentation on economic development, in which he suggested that, while revenue-stressed communities may look for sweeping, “creative” solutions to save their economies from ruin, there are more basic approaches to bear in mind.

“There’s financial pressure to come up with strategies that will significantly transform an economy,” he said. “The best development strategy would be a balanced budget, economic security and good services.”

In Troy’s case, after Pattison entered office, the city raised taxes 21 percent, raised water bills, negotiated with unions to control the cost of city services and renegotiated bond payments at 50 cents on the dollar. Loans to service debt costs money that will compete with revenue needed for services. Pattison said maintaining the best services for what a municipality can afford is essential in maintaining a local tax base. The goals he had for Troy, then, were to restore the integrity of the city and create a climate for stability.

He encourages strapped communities to look for ways to share and consolidate services with other communities to save money. Any approach, however, to saving a municipality from the depths of despair requires patience and persistence.
Troy has had a balanced budget now for eight consecutive years.

The NYSSCPA’s Government Accounting and Auditing Committee, chaired by David Hasson, sponsored the conference. Marcevir Bernardo chaired the event.