Mayor Lanigan’s proposed 2027 budget holds the city tax rate, water, sewer, and trash rates where they are. If your assessment didn’t change, the city’s part of your bill doesn’t either. But costs are still growing faster than revenue, so the budget plans to use about $3.6 million in savings and counts on $3.2 million in temporary state aid arriving again. If that aid doesn’t come, the general city budget is about $2.1 million short. This episode walks through the budget book section by section, from police and trash to the $100 million sewer plant and a capital plan that grew from $174 million to $272 million.

The council holds its public hearing Wednesday, October 14 at City Hall. If you have a question, take it to your councilor before then. The full budget book and capital plan are posted at https://www.romerightnow.com

Rome has about 10,000 water service lines, and after 18 months of letters, door hangers, and news coverage, about 200 residents had reported what their pipe is made of. So in May 2026 the city approved $1 million in bonds just to find the lead lines, before a single one gets replaced. That's the smallest bill in this episode. City debt grew from $77.7 million in 2021 to $113.7 million in 2025, a fire truck quoted at $650,000 is now carried at $1.25 million, $21.7 million in dam work is already approved, and the sewer upgrades tied to Chobani still don't have an official price. Unlike salaries or equipment, debt payments can't be delayed, trimmed, or negotiated. They come due on a date somebody already wrote down. With the 2027 budget now out, the question this series has been building toward is simple. Rome is facing serious financial challenges in the upcoming years. What did the mayor decide to do about it?

On January 28, 2026, the Rome Common Council spent a long stretch of a meeting debating $70,000 in window blinds for City Hall. Later that same night, three transfers of money between city funds passed with no discussion at all. It looks backwards until you read the rule in the city's own audited statements: the council can't cut salaries, debt payments, or revenue estimates, and it can't add to any line. Every cost driving Rome's budget gap sits outside the authority of the Common Council. This episode also traces the one line in every budget book where the city writes down how much it needs to cover the deficit. That number has grown from $1.3 million in 2022 to $3.7 million in 2025. And a sentence from an April council meeting is slated to add more than $17 million to the existing debt.

Rome, NY takes in about 3% more each year and spends about 8% more. In 2023 the space between those two lines was $2,839,000. In 2025 it was $88,000. This episode starts back in the room on October 8, 2025, the one night all year the public hearing fills up. Residents argued over 2.59%, about $33 a year on a home assessed at $62,046, roughly nine cents a day. They also argued that the city increase doesn't arrive alone, stacked on top of a county increase and a school increase. Both of those things are true at the same time.

In 2026 the City of Rome, NY raised property taxes for the second year in a row. Even after the increase, the adopted 2026 budget plans to use more than $3.8 million from savings. In February 2026 I spent a month in the city's audits, ten years of state comptroller filings, and every budget I could get. In March I presented a report on a structural deficit and a declining cash reserve, thinking I'd found something new. I hadn't. Mayor Jeff Lanigan had laid out the problem in his September 2025 budget message, and he called this increase "not a trend, but a bridge."

In May and June of 2026, roughly half of Rome's voters said "yes" to the proposed 26-27 Rome City School District budget. While they acknowledge that there is still work to do, there is evidence of improvement, both in the classroom and in the administration. There is a strong argument to be made that the district is being responsible with tax dollars, and the problems that remain don't get solved by cutting the budget. Ultimately, enough of them voted "yes" to pass the budget in June. This episode speaks for that side of the argument, but it isn't my verdict, and it isn't the whole case. The other side of the argument is available here on my channel or at www.romerightnow.com.

In May and June of 2026, roughly half of Rome's voters said "no" to the proposed 26-27 Rome City School District budget. For them, it wasn't just about money. It was about feeling unheard and ignored. It was about trying every door the school said to open and finding most of them led nowhere. Ultimately, it was about trust, and the gap that still exists between the district and roughly half the voters in Rome. This episode speaks for that side of the argument, but it isn't my verdict, and it isn't the whole case. The other side of the argument is available here on my channel or at www.romerightnow.com.

In May 2026, Rome voted down the school's proposed budget. Then, in June 2026, Rome voters passed a nearly identical one. The margin was razor thin for both. Why? That's the question this episode tries to answer, and it doesn't rely on math alone. This is a complex situation where both sides are having a different discussion. I do my best to make sense of it based on the record.

(Aug 28, 2026)

Rome has serious fiscal problems. The savings are declining. The deficit is structural. The debt is growing. Nine episodes documented all of it. But the popular complaints about Rome tell a different story than the data does. The season finale puts three complaints next to the actual numbers and compares Rome to the ten cities it most directly competes with. The results may surprise you.

Rome held a public meeting in December 2025 to shape a 15-year parks plan affecting every neighborhood in the city. Seven communication channels. Two public meetings. Two dozen people showed up. This episode is about why, and why the responsibility for closing that gap belongs to both sides.

Rome is considering a major long-term financial commitment for the Legacy Center, a proposed recreation complex on Floyd Avenue. The feasibility study that was supposed to answer the operating cost questions hasn't surfaced in the public record. So we built our own model. Rome deserves to see the actual numbers before anyone signs anything.

Rome's median home sale price grew 77% between 2020 and 2025. Rome's median assessed value grew by $400. New York State says Rome's assessments are running at about 42 cents on the dollar of actual market value. This episode walks through what that gap means, who it affects, and what the three paths forward actually cost.

Rome has been naming catalysts for nine years. They mention the grants, the developments, and the projects that were supposed to change the city's trajectory. This episode goes back and asks a simple question: what did they actually produce? From the first DRI grant to Woodhaven, here's what the budget record shows.

Your property tax bill is doing a lot more than taking your money. This episode breaks down exactly what Rome's piece of that bill funds. We talk about who gets it, what they do with it, who makes the decisions, and what a decade of those decisions actually looks like when you put it on a chart. General fund only. The basics, finally explained.

The Rome City School District runs a $165 million budget, which is nearly three times the size of the City of Rome government. This episode looks at what the school’s audited financial statements actually show, including a $344 million unfunded retiree healthcare liability, a fund balance that may exceed what is allowed, and six significant audit findings, one of which received a one-word management response.

When a building is worth $50,000 and a new roof costs $15,000, the math doesn't work. And the person in the cold apartment waiting for someone to answer the phone gets the same experience whether the landlord won't fix it or genuinely can't. This episode also looks at what the city is doing about it; what's working, what the data suggests is missing, and who has been buying Rome's tax-foreclosed properties since February.

Chobani is bringing a thousand jobs and $1.2 billion in investment to Rome. Everyone says it's amazing. I wanted to find out if the math actually backs that up, so I built a ledger. Everything Rome gets. Everything Rome will likely pay. And the picture is surprising. Are my numbers right? Only the engineers will be able to tell us. But this video is a great place to start.

On March 26, 2026, Mayor Jeff Lanigan held a public town hall at City Hall. I went. I took notes. And I walked away with questions. In this video I break down where Rome actually stands as of that meeting. I’ll walk you through the four priorities the Mayor laid out (Chobani, the Legacy Center, public nuisance and community safety, and the parks plan) and tell you exactly what I still need to know before I feel good about it.