Auburn’s difficult budget season forced city officials to make immediate decisions about spending, staffing and services. Now, less than two months into the new fiscal year, a broader question is emerging at City Hall: What has to change to keep the same financial pressures from returning year after year?
That question surfaced during the Aug. 27 City Council meeting, first through public criticism of the city’s finances and later during a discussion about Auburn’s next comprehensive plan. While council took no new action on the budget, the conversation increasingly centered on population loss, the tax base, economic development and whether Auburn faces structural challenges that annual budget adjustments alone cannot address.
During public comment, one speaker argued that the city had not adequately addressed the conditions that contributed to this year’s difficult budget process. He pointed to layoffs and service reductions debated earlier this year and urged officials to begin considering structural changes, including whether some services or personnel could be consolidated.
The comments came as Auburn begins looking much further ahead through an update of its Smart Growth Comprehensive Plan, which is expected to guide decisions involving development, housing, infrastructure and investment over roughly the next 20 years.
The draft planning framework presented Thursday puts fiscal strength among the principles that would guide those decisions. It calls for strengthening Auburn’s long-term financial capacity, maintaining essential services and avoiding short-term fixes that create larger costs later.
But the council discussion showed how complicated improving that financial position could be.
Councilor Craig Diego said economic development has to be central to Auburn’s strategy because many of the city’s other ambitions depend on having the resources to pay for them. He also pointed to long-term population decline as evidence of a larger problem.
“People aren’t coming here to stay here,” Diego said. “There’s a problem.”
Mayor James Giannettino Jr. agreed that economic development is important but raised a different concern: Auburn and the surrounding region already have employers struggling to fill jobs.
Giannettino said he and Diego recently toured a local business that had completed a major expansion and wanted to add a second shift but wasn’t getting enough applicants. He said Nucor has also had vacancies, while the city has found itself advertising positions that once drew people waiting to take civil service examinations.
“It used to be there were no jobs here,” Giannettino said. “Now it’s we can’t fill the jobs.”
Councilor Terrence Cuddy, who works at Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES, said he sees similar demand from employers looking for workers.
That creates a different challenge than the one many Upstate communities have traditionally faced. If jobs exist while population continues to decline, attracting additional employers may address only part of Auburn’s long-term fiscal problem.
Diego returned to that point later in the discussion, saying the city needs to understand why people aren’t coming to Auburn even when employment opportunities are available.
“If we have all these jobs, but nobody’s coming here to take them, there’s a bigger issue,” Diego said.
Housing emerged as one possible piece of that equation. Councilor Rhoda Overstreet-Wilson said affordable housing has to be considered if Auburn wants families to settle in the city and remain there.
Consultants working on the comprehensive plan said housing has also been a recurring concern during community engagement. The planning process includes a housing market study, and expanding access to diverse, quality and affordable housing is one of four proposed priorities.
The others are improving residential quality of life, strengthening civic and economic vitality, and enhancing Auburn’s recreational and cultural assets.
The city isn’t expected to solve those questions immediately. The comprehensive plan remains in development, with officials and consultants now working from a preliminary framework shaped by public workshops, stakeholder discussions, a community survey and the project’s steering committee.
More detailed policies and projects will be developed as the process continues, with another public workshop expected later this year and the full plan moving toward adoption in 2027.
For Auburn, that process is unfolding against the backdrop of the budget debate that dominated City Hall earlier this year. The next phase will test whether officials can identify longer-term changes capable of easing those pressures before another budget season brings them back to the council floor.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to news@fingerlakes1.com.