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Saratoga Springs hears public testimony on 2026 amended budget as participatory budgeting funding draws debate
Summary
At a city council meeting, residents urged continued funding for homeless services and participatory budgeting while a public commenter accused the finance office of mismanagement; the council kept the budget hearing open and scheduled a final vote for Thursday, Nov. 20, at 09:30 AM.
The City Council heard more than a dozen speakers during a public hearing on the 2026 amended budget, with testimony ranging from calls to preserve participatory budgeting dollars to an extended accusation that the finance office mishandled budget disclosures.
John Kaufman, a resident at 44 White Street, urged the council to table the proposed budget and call a special meeting, accusing Commissioner of Finance Munita Sanghvi of failing to post budget materials in compliance with open meeting requirements and of inflating revenue estimates. "Her budget must now be tabled and a special meeting set so that the public can be properly informed," Kaufman said, criticizing several prior decisions he said increased recurring costs and alleging inconsistent figures in occupancy-tax projections.
A council member responded directly to Kaufman's claims, calling them false and defamatory and saying the speaker had defended the city's risk and safety program; that response was recorded in the meeting transcript and remains the council's formal rebuttal on the record.
Other commenters framed the budget around homelessness and human services. Brianna Sullivan, representing the Children's Museum at Saratoga, urged the council to keep participatory budgeting in the amended budget, saying the museum’s participatory-funded programs reach second-graders in multiple elementary schools and drive educational and economic value. "I urge you to please keep this in the budget," Sullivan told the council.
Several speakers, including Sam Brewer and Kevin Hammond, highlighted rising employee-benefit and health-insurance costs and urged the city to explore regional purchasing or self-insurance to control premiums. The finance commissioner (as recorded in council remarks) said the city is seeing multi-year increases in salaries, health insurance, retirement and liability costs and described the amended general fund as about $63.5 million; the commissioner said the plan uses roughly $1.3 million of unassigned fund balance and that the tax rate remains within the cap at 4.53%.
Council members also discussed revenue assumptions behind the amended budget. The commissioner noted new occupancy-tax collections from short-term rentals and an increase in the county occupancy tax that will return a portion of receipts to the city. At least one council member pressed to remove participatory budgeting funds as the city balances shelter and nonprofit needs; the commissioner said participatory budgeting remained in the amended budget and that a position was defunded to provide its funding.
Procedural next steps: the council kept the budget hearing open and set a further meeting for Thursday, Nov. 20, at 09:30 AM, with a public hearing prior to the final vote. The transcript shows robust public comment and continuing council debate; no final vote on the amended budget was recorded at this meeting.
Closing note: coverage here draws only on statements made on the council record. Where the transcript contained inconsistent numeric values for projected occupancy-tax revenue, this article reports the budget office's broad characterizations and the council's stated use of fund balance rather than presenting unclear or internally inconsistent dollar figures as definitive.
