Troy's city budget, 2018 to 2027

The budget grew $21.5 million since 2018

The General Fund budget was $73.6 million in 2018. The 2027 proposal is $95.1 million.

After inflation: prices rose 28% from 2018 to 2025. So the 2025 budget was about 11% smaller than the 2018 budget. Part of that drop is garbage pickup, which left the General Fund in 2019.

Source: the General Fund total on the tax page of each budget: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, and the 2027 proposal. Prices: US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What this means for you: after inflation, the city was spending less in 2025 than in 2018. The 2026 budget and the 2027 proposal add $10.7 million.

The tax rate rose 22% since 2018. Taxable property grew 3%.

The total city property tax (the levy) grew from $24.6 million to $31.0 million. The value of taxable property barely moved, so the rate per $1,000 rose. Tax-exempt property grew from 46.0% to 47.0% of all assessed value.

After inflation: the levy fell 7% from 2018 to 2025. For a home whose assessed value stayed the same, the 2025 tax rate was about 9% lower than 2018's.

Tax rate per $1,000 of assessed value

Total city property tax (the levy)

Taxable and tax-exempt property value

Source: the tax page of each budget: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, and the 2027 proposal.

What this means for you: on a home assessed at $150,000, city tax was $2,094 in 2018. The 2027 proposal makes it $2,565.

Property and sales taxes grew $13.5 million since 2018. State aid grew $1.1 million.

State aid grew 8% from 2018 to 2027. Property taxes grew 28%, and sales and other local taxes grew 37%. Payments from the water, sewer, and garbage funds grew 78%.

After inflation: state aid fell 26% from 2018 to 2025, and property and sales taxes fell 2%.

The four largest sources

Every source in 2027

Source: the audits' original budget for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, and the revenue pages of the 2025 adopted budget and the 2027 proposal, which also lists 2026.

What this means for you: with state aid nearly flat, more of the cost falls on local taxes, fees, and water, sewer, and garbage bills.

Public safety accounts for $20.8 million of the $21.5 million growth since 2018

Public safety was half of the budget in 2018. In the 2027 proposal it is 61%.

After inflation: public safety grew 6% from 2018 to 2025, and the rest of the budget shrank 27%.

The four largest areas

Every area in 2027

Source: the audits' original budget for 2018 to 2024, the department summaries of the adopted budgets for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, and the 2027 proposal.

What this means for you: about 3 of every 4 new dollars since 2018 went to public safety. Planning, debt, and streets got less than in 2018.

The city spent more than planned on services in 4 of the last 5 years

Of the last 5 years, only 2022 came in under plan on city services. Revenue other than federal aid also came in above plan, so savings held steady. Services here do not count debt payments. They also leave out federal relief money, which the table shows.

Source: the budget-and-actual page of each audit: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. 2025: the city's report to the State Comptroller (revenue, spending), not yet audited, and the 2025 adopted budget.

What this means for you: the adopted budget has fallen short of real spending in most recent years. Higher revenue covered the extra spending in each of those years except 2025.

Total savings grew about $1 million since 2018

Total savings have stayed between $18.1 million and $19.5 million since 2018. Unassigned savings are the money the city can use in a bad year. They jumped in 2022 because a debt reserve was relabeled, not because the city saved more.

Source: city audits (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024) and State Comptroller reports for 2014 and 2025 (2025 not yet audited).

What this means for you: after inflation, the city's total savings are worth about 17% less than in 2018.

How years were matched

• Garbage: until 2019, garbage pickup was paid from the General Fund, and garbage fees came into it. In 2019 both moved to a new garbage fund. 2018 includes them, and later years do not.
• Debt: the budgets from 2023 on pay the city's debts through a transfer to a separate debt fund. The city began paying this way partway through 2022. Debt payments and transfers are shown together, so the line does not break.
• New departments: City Court and the downtown marina first appear in 2022. Programs for the aging first appear in 2023.
• Renamed lines: retiree health and dental insurance were renamed in 2021. Their account numbers stayed the same, so they are matched.
• Not matched: Troy MAC, the Municipal Assistance Corporation for the City of Troy, appears in the 2018 to 2022 budgets. The state set it up in 1995 to borrow money for Troy and watch over its finances. This line paid it back for office work it did for the city. Its last debt was paid in 2022, and it closed in 2023. It is counted in its year's total.
• Emergency dispatch (911): the 2025 budget set it at $0. The city paid Rensselaer County for 911 that year.
• Revenue groups: 2018 to 2024 use the audits' groups. To match them, the sale of electricity counts as a fee, and repayments from federal task forces count as federal aid.
• Read by hand: the 2020 and 2022 audits are scans, and one 2022 department amount was unreadable in the city's file. Two separate readers read these from the page images, and their results matched.

Words used on this page

Actual

What the city really took in or spent in a year, from its audit.

Adopted budget

The budget the City Council votes to approve. The Mayor proposes it, and the Council can change it before voting.

Amended budget

The adopted budget, plus the changes the Council makes during the year.

ARPA

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which sent pandemic relief money to cities. It can only be spent on approved projects, and the deadline is the end of 2026.

Assessed value

What the city's assessor lists a property as worth for taxes.

Consumer Price Index

A measure of prices from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This page uses the yearly average for the whole country.

General Fund

The city's main account. It pays for police, fire, streets, parks, and city offices. Water, sewer, and garbage have separate accounts.

Inflation

The rise in prices over time. A dollar in 2018 bought more than a dollar in 2025. Charts with an "Adjust for inflation" switch can show every year in 2025 prices, so years can be compared fairly. Turn it off to see the dollars as the city printed them.

Not yet audited

Figures the city reported but an outside auditor has not checked yet.

Plan

The budget the Council adopted at the start of the year.

Proposed

The Mayor's budget before the City Council votes on it.

The relabeled debt reserve

At the end of 2021 the city held $5.6 million in a reserve for debt payments. In 2022 the city moved almost all of it into unassigned savings. Unassigned savings jumped, but the city had not saved more.

Spending on city services

City spending, not counting debt payments or money moved to the city's other accounts.

Tax rate

Dollars of city tax per $1,000 of a property's assessed value.

Transfers

Money the General Fund moves to the city's other accounts. It pays off debt and pays for building and repair projects.

Unassigned savings (fund balance)

Money left over from past years that is not set aside for anything specific. It is the money the city can use in emergencies and bad years.

Check the numbers yourself

Each source link on this page opens an excerpt: the pages a number comes from, copied out of the city's PDF without changes. To confirm an excerpt matches the original, open the city's own copy next to it.

How numbers are rounded. Amounts of $1 million or more are rounded to one decimal place: $21,487,285 is shown as "$21.5 million" or "$21.5M". Smaller amounts are rounded to the nearest $1,000, and amounts under $10,000 in sentences to the nearest $100. Amounts under $1,000 are shown in full. Shares and changes are rounded to whole percents. Inflation-adjusted amounts are in 2025 dollars and rounded the same way. The source pages show every exact figure.