This Week In Rome
These are the main stories happening in Rome government for the week starting October 4, 2026.
2027 Budget Is Before the Council
The Council Can Cut, But It Cannot Add
Mayor Lanigan presented his proposed 2027 budget at a special Common Council meeting on September 30, and under the city charter, the Board of Estimate and Contract's final version was due to the council by October 1. Public hearings come next, and the council then has 30 days to act. Its authority over the budget is narrower than most people expect. Members can cut or reject individual items, but they cannot add anything, and they cannot change salaries, debt payments, or the city's revenue estimates.
The budget follows two straight years of the city spending more than it collected. The 2025 audit found no weaknesses in the city's financial controls. It also showed that the general fund, which pays for police, fire, and most other city services, spent about $1.9 million more than it took in, following a $1 million gap in 2024. In August, the council set aside $2 million in unexpected, temporary state aid for retirement costs, which the treasurer said will help cover the difference over the next few years. On September 9, Councilor Dursi called the budget tough but said Rome is holding its own.
What it means for your money: The budget sets the city's share of your property tax bill. The 2026 budget planned to draw about $3.9 million from reserves, salaries and benefits drove most of the 2025 spending increase, and one union contract is still being negotiated. Any shortfall is covered by some combination of taxes, spending cuts, and reserves, and the public hearings are residents' main opportunity to weigh in before the council votes.
Rome Votes On Schools December 8
Two Questions, and One Depends on the Other
Voters in the Rome City School District will decide a capital project on Tuesday, December 8, and the ballot will have two questions. Proposition 1 costs $23,151,555 and pays for a new gym, auditorium, cafeteria, and locker rooms at the Clough building, along with demolition of the former Staley school. Proposition 2 costs $7,951,375 and replaces the closed grandstand at RFA Stadium. The questions are linked. Proposition 2 only takes effect if Proposition 1 also passes, so if the first question fails, neither project goes forward.
The timing comes from disaster aid. About $19 million in federal and state money tied to Staley's 2021 flooding has to be spent by October 2029, and a public vote, design work, state review, bidding, and construction all have to fit inside that window. This vote is separate from the $12.8 million in contracts the board awarded on September 21, which begin the first phase of a roughly $34 million renovation that voters approved in 2024.
What it means for your money: The district's goal is no tax increase, but its letter to voters says the financing is still being refined. Rome's local share is about $8 million. In September, the board transferred $3 million from its general fund into its capital reserve, bringing that account to about $6.3 million and leaving roughly $2 million to borrow, unless the annual audit, expected this month, turns up more leftover money. Reserves are money already collected from taxpayers, and what is spent here is unavailable for the next project.
Inspectors Are Checking Rome's Water Lines
Homeowners Pay for Their Side of Lead Pipes
Contractors working for the city have been going door to door since July to determine what Rome's water service lines are made of, part of a federal requirement to locate every lead pipe. Crews wear marked vests and hats and carry identification badges. The city is mailing postcards and leaving door hangers where no one answers, and residents can report their own line or call the Department of Public Works to schedule an inspection. The police department keeps a list of the crews' vehicles, so anyone uncertain about one parked on their street can call to confirm it.
The inspections are only the first step. In May, the council borrowed $1 million to build the required inventory and plan the work, but that money will not replace a single pipe, and the city still does not know how many lead lines exist. Asking residents to report on their own has barely worked, with only about 200 of roughly 10,000 water services responding over 18 months, and replacement is not expected to begin until 2028.
What it means for your money: When replacement arrives, the city pays for the public side of the line up to the curb, and the homeowner pays for the portion that runs into the house. The city does not yet know what that work will cost. The first $1 million is borrowed, and the city has received a $7.2 million grant to help offset it, while roughly $12 million in lead line replacement work is already lined up.
The running stories we are following at
City of Rome
The five things to know about city government right now.
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For two years running, the city's general fund, which pays for police, fire, and most other services, has spent more than it collected, about $1 million in 2024 and $1.9 million in 2025, and budgets have been balanced with savings, including roughly $3.9 million planned for 2026. Salaries and benefits drove most of last year's spending growth, a union contract remains unsettled, and in June the finance committee said additional items are headed to the council for borrowing.
What to watch: Whether the 2027 budget presented September 30 leans on savings again and/or raises the levy, how the union contracts settle, and how much new debt the council approves, since debt payments are a line it cannot cut.
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Several of the city's largest long-term costs involve pipes, dams, and the sewer treatment plant. Contractors are going door to door to inventory roughly 10,000 water service lines for lead, a federal requirement, with replacement not expected until 2028 and homeowners responsible for their portion. Kessinger Dam's rehabilitation has grown to $17.15 million from the $14 million bonded in 2024, Boyd Dam carries a $4.6 million budget, and the council has begun the environmental review for a major expansion of the treatment plant.
What to watch: What the lead inventory finds and what replacement will cost homeowners, whether $2.32 million in federal and state reimbursement for Kessinger clears, and whether water and sewer rates rise to carry the new debt.
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Chobani's roughly $1.2 billion dairy plant at Griffiss is the largest project in Rome's recent history, and construction is underway. Most of the near-term work is infrastructure, including a roundabout at Route 825 and Perimeter Road, a sound wall along the Bell Road neighborhood, and a major wastewater plant upgrade to carry the additional load. At full build-out, the city expects roughly 1,000 jobs and 180 to 200 tanker trucks a day.
What to watch: Truck routes and road wear, the cost of the sewer upgrades, water withdrawal from Fish Creek, how many jobs go to Rome residents, and whether new families change school enrollment, which the school board cited in leaving 20 classrooms out of the December vote.
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Several large housing projects have cleared city boards, though most are not built yet. Copper Village, about 250 affordable units for seniors and veterans on the south Rome waterfront, had its approval renewed in June. It is not expected to begin construction until the second half of 2027. The council approved the Nascentia neighborhood, roughly 110 homes for residents 55 and older on Turin Road, and the former Rome Cable office on South Jay Street won approval to become about 40 apartments.
What to watch: Whether Copper Village secures its financing or needs another renewal, and when Nascentia and the Rome Cable apartments break ground. And whether any of the new housing is priced for local incomes, the recurring question in public comment.
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Much of what residents bring to City Hall concerns their own blocks. The city has stepped up nuisance enforcement and boarded up problem houses, while residents have raised concerns about unsafe rental conditions. Tax-foreclosed lots sell on nearly every Board of Estimate agenda, often for a few thousand dollars or less, and the buyers' intentions are not always disclosed. After a September complaint about cars blocking sidewalks, the council passed new parking rules for Elm Street. One councilor said enforcement ranks low because officers are stretched thin.
What to watch: Whether enforcement reaches problem rentals as firmly as vacant houses, how foreclosed properties are sold and to whom, and whether parking and sidewalk complaints receive a quicker response.
Rome’s Schools
The five things to know about the Rome City School District right now.
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District voters will decide a two-part capital project on Tuesday, December 8. Proposition 1 costs $23,151,555 and adds a gym, auditorium, cafeteria, and locker rooms at the Clough building so it can hold older elementary grades. It also tears down the former Staley school, closed by flooding in 2021. Proposition 2 costs $7,951,375 and replaces the closed RFA Stadium grandstand, but it only takes effect if Proposition 1 passes. The deadline comes from roughly $19 million in FEMA and state money tied to Staley, a reimbursement that must be spent by October 2029 and requires demolition.
What to watch: Whether the October audit shrinks the roughly $2 million the district expects to borrow, and whether the pre-K lease at the former Roman Catholic Academy holds up during construction.
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After rejecting the first budget in May, voters approved a reduced $165.4 million plan in June that lowered the tax levy increase to 2.5%. That levy, about $40.7 million, is billed in two installments, in October and April. In June, the business office warned that expenses are growing faster than revenue, leaving a deficit in 2027-28 unless the levy keeps rising about 2.5% a year. On September 21, the board adopted a calendar for building that budget.
What to watch: The October audit and how much leftover money moves into savings, the finance committee's October 8 meeting at 4:30 p.m. at 409 Bell Road, and whether future levies return to the state cap.
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About a quarter of Rome's students have special education plans. That is roughly double the 10% an outside review said a district this size would expect, and the review, presented in May, found the department stretched thin and too centralized. The district is also under a state corrective plan because students with disabilities are suspended at higher rates than other students. The district has struggled to fill special education coordinator jobs, and school psychologists are hard to find. On September 21, the superintendent said plan meetings are on schedule and parents get same-day answers.
What to watch: Whether the open coordinator and psychologist jobs get filled. Whether a state university partnership brings in psychology interns. And whether suspensions of students with disabilities come down.
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Six Rome schools, Bellamy, Gansevoort, Denti, John Joy, Stokes, and Strough, now operate under state improvement plans that lean on weekly meetings with instructional coaches and regular classroom walkthroughs. In July, the district said state test scores were not yet back, and a board workshop reviewing the 2025-26 school year is now scheduled for October 5. Leadership is shifting as well. Rome Free Academy's principal resigned in July, and after a month-long search the district said it hoped to recommend a replacement by the end of September. District figures show teacher departures declining from 16 to 12 to 11 over three years.
What to watch: When state test results are released, who is named principal at RFA, and what the state's new graduation framework means for Rome students.
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Rome Free Academy began screening every student at the door on September 3, and lines for on-time students now usually clear by 7:35am. The district added two security officers, and a new agreement with the city places three school resource officers in the district for a little over $1.5 million across three years. The code of conduct is shifting from punishment toward restorative practices. Its public hearing had to be redone after the district posted last year's version by mistake, and a parent coalition has told the board the code does not line up with the state's anti-harassment law, known as DASA.
What to watch: The October 5 hearing at 5:15 p.m. Whether screening expands to Strough and to events. And whether the coalition's requests on handling harassment reports are adopted.