At a glance
The treasurer told the Finance Committee that the 2025 audit was finished that afternoon and that the General Fund ended 2025 about $155,000 behind, after a drop of about $1.3 million in 2024. She said sales tax is running behind its usual pace and could come in near $2.1 million against the $2.5 million budgeted, while an unbudgeted state payment of $508,000 arrived. She explained why the city's state filing shows much less unassigned savings than the audit, and reported that the tax foreclosure list is down to 15 properties. No votes were taken.
Revenue through August
With the year 66.7% over, the treasurer compared revenue collected so far with the budget.
Key points
- Building permits are at 39% of budget and plumbing permits at 18%. She said she did not know why building permits dropped off.
- On- and off-street parking is at 75%, other permits at 70% and parking tickets at 59%.
- Lodging tax is at $409,000, 71% of budget. The mortgage tax is at about 47%, with one of its two yearly payments still to come.
- Adult-use cannabis tax has slowed. The budget of $160,000 assumed about $40,000 a quarter; the last quarterly payment was $18,000.
Sales tax could fall short
Sales tax is at 37% of budget, below the roughly 45% of the year's total that the first two payments have brought in over the last five years.
Key points
- At this point in 2022 through 2025 the city had somewhat over $1 million in sales tax, against about $932,000 now.
- If the usual 45% pattern holds, the treasurer said, sales tax would come in near $2.1 million against a budget of $2.5 million. She called it a projection to watch.
The sales tax figure to date is garbled in the captions ("932.8.9,000"); she later called it 932.
An unbudgeted state payment
Beyond the state aid the city gets every year, a temporary state payment arrived that was not in the budget.
Key points
- The regular state aid is about $1.491 million and has not changed, she said.
- Temporary municipal assistance came for the first time last year, about $139,000, and this year was $508,000.
- She said the city gets no advance notice of the amount and would not budget for it next year. It can be used for anything.
The 2025 audit and the city's savings
The treasurer said the 2025 audited financial statements were completed about two hours earlier, one day before the deadline, and gave General Fund results.
Key points
- Revenue of $15.58 million, spending of $15.512 million and other uses of $229,000, mostly a transfer to the cemetery fund: a loss of about $155,000 for 2025. She said the drop in 2024 was $1.3 million.
- Fund balance at the end of 2025: nonspendable $148,000, restricted $698,000, $385,000 assigned to balance the 2026 budget, $1.032 million in other assigned amounts (commitments carried from one year to the next), and $2.197 million unassigned, for a total of $4.463 million.
- Why the state filing shows less: New York requires any loan from the General Fund to another city fund that has been outstanding more than a year to be counted as nonspendable. At the end of 2025 there was $2.068 million in such loans, $787,000 of it outstanding more than a year.
- Adjusted that way, she said, unassigned savings are about $1.4 million. Two months of spending, the minimum the Government Finance Officers Association recommends, would be about $2.6 million.
- She said the city's latest state fiscal stress score is still fine but the next one may be marked down on this measure. Rating agencies are likely to use the audit.
These figures were read aloud from a summary on screen. They have not yet been checked against the published audit.
Back taxes and foreclosure
The treasurer explained how unpaid taxes count, then reported on the foreclosure list.
Key points
- Unpaid property taxes are counted as revenue when bills go out; collecting them turns a receivable into cash. Interest and penalties are new revenue.
- The foreclosure petition has been filed with the city clerk, notices went to owners, and foreclosure is about three months away.
- Fifteen properties remain on the list, down from 152, owing about $950,000 in principal and $480,000 in interest. She estimated the top five account for 70 to 75% of the total.
- Several owners have entered installment plans since the last meeting.
A property sale, short-term rentals and Oakdale Park
The treasurer covered other items on her report.
Key points
- A tax-foreclosed city property has a bid date of October 30. She said it would cover about $220,000 in back taxes, and that the city can no longer keep the excess from such sales.
- She said Airbnb confirmed it is refunding guests who were charged the city tax by mistake.
- For the Oakdale Park project, she described a short-term interfund loan of roughly $250,000 and a bond resolution next month, with the project meant to be paid for by grants and contributions.
The property's address is garbled in the captions.
The 2027 budget and snow removal
The treasurer noted that all department budget requests are posted on the Treasurer's page and shared a comparison of each department's 2026 budget and 2027 request.
Key points
- She said the snow removal budget is spent and an amendment will likely be needed later this year.
Dock reports and the tourism reserve
A member asked whether the committee had received the monthly financial reports the Council required from the dock operator; the treasurer said she had not.
Key points
- About $4,700 is left in the tourism reserve after $30,000 was used for 2026 citywide promotions, the treasurer said.
About this page
FUTURE HUDSON is an experiment in civic engagement: every public meeting of the City of Hudson since January 2026, transcribed and made readable, so any resident can follow what the city is deciding without attending every meeting. This page covers one meeting; see the full archive.
How it was made
The meeting video was transcribed automatically; the transcript was then organized into sections and summarized. The raw transcript is above, every claim can be checked against it.
What to be skeptical of
The transcript is automated and contains speech-recognition errors; names and numbers may be wrong. This page has not been reviewed by a human. Nothing here is an official record, the city's official minutes are authoritative.
About coverage of this body
Meetings of the Council Finance Committee are uploaded to the city YouTube channel by members on a best-effort basis (not by the city audiovisual coordinator, who posts only the Common Council family, Planning Board, and HCDPA). If a meeting of this body is missing from the archive, it usually means the recording was not uploaded. See the archive index for the full coverage note.