The Cortland Common Council voted July 21 to hand real property tax collection to Cortland County, then on August 4 scheduled four public hearings for August 18 to rewrite the city charter and code to make it happen, changes that also move the mayor’s budget deadline and the council’s final budget vote 61 days earlier starting in 2027.
The Cortland Common Council spent two meetings this summer building the legal scaffolding to stop collecting its own property taxes. On July 21, 2026, the council voted 7 to 0 to authorize an intermunicipal agreement letting Cortland County’s Finance Office collect real property taxes on the city’s behalf. On August 4, it set four public hearings, all for August 18 at 6 p.m. in the third-floor council chambers at 25 Court Street, to repeal the local laws and amend the city charter sections that stand in the way.
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Cathy Bishoff, chair of the Cortland County Legislature’s Finance and Administration Committee, presented the proposal to the council on July 21. According to the meeting minutes, she told council members the switch would align tax collection schedules across the county and provide financial benefits to the city through accelerated payments and reduced administrative costs. The resolution the council adopted, No. 118 of 2026, cites Section 1150 of the New York Real Property Tax Law, which lets municipalities enter agreements covering property on which they hold tax liens.
Under the deal, the city will transfer all delinquent real property taxes to the county, and the county will reimburse the city in full for that delinquent amount, according to the resolution’s text. The mayor still needs the corporation counsel to review and approve final agreement language before signing.
Making the switch permanent requires more than a handshake agreement. Resolution No. 129, adopted August 4, sets four separate public hearings for August 18, each addressing a different piece of city law that currently assumes Cortland collects its own taxes:
The first would repeal Local Law No. 1 of 1994, the law under which the city opted out of the tax enforcement provisions of Chapter 602 of the Laws of New York State of 1993. The second would repeal Article V of Chapter 254 of the city code, the section governing the city’s own collection of delinquent taxes. Both repeals would take effect January 1, 2027, according to the agenda language council members will vote on.
The third and fourth hearings target the city charter’s budget calendar. One would amend Article XXI, Section 6, moving the deadline for the mayor to submit a budget to the council from October 15 to August 15. The other would amend Article XXI, Section 10, moving the council’s deadline to adopt a final city budget from December 31 to October 31. Both charter changes are also set to take effect January 1, 2027.
Lined up together, both calendar shifts move by the same amount: 61 days earlier. That is not a coincidence of arithmetic so much as a byproduct of aligning the city’s fiscal calendar with the county’s, which typically needs a finalized city tax levy earlier in the year to fold it into countywide tax bills. Because the charter amendments do not take effect until January 1, 2027, the city’s budget process for the 2027 fiscal year, the one already underway under the mayor’s existing October 15 submission deadline, will run on the old calendar. The first cycle to actually use the new August 15 submission and October 31 adoption dates will be the one for the city’s 2028 fiscal year. The council adopted its current, 2026 budget on December 16, 2025, under the calendar the charter amendments are designed to retire.
The tax collection overhaul was not the only piece of city governance the council rewired this summer. At the same August 4 meeting, the council adopted Local Law No. 2 of 2026, which restructures how the city sets parking rules. Rather than requiring a local law amendment every time the city wants to add a paid parking zone or adjust a fee, the new law lets the council make those changes by simple resolution. The law traces back to an ad hoc committee, chaired by Council Member Troy Beckwith with members Bill Carpenter and Tom Michales, that Mayor Scott Steve appointed on February 17, 2026, to review parking fees and rules.
The parking law itself does not create any paid spaces. A separate resolution proposing paid on-street parking on ten city streets is scheduled for the council’s August 18 meeting, the same night as the four tax-related public hearings. Under the newly adopted code, Main Street parking between Tompkins Street or Port Watson Street and Clinton Avenue or Groton Avenue remains back-in only, a rule the council carried forward unchanged from the prior code.
The parking overhaul drew the most direct pushback of anything on either agenda. At the July 21 public hearing on the parking law, Holly Pizzigat, vice president of the SUNY Cortland Student Government Association, presented survey results gathered from roughly 300 students. More than 90 percent opposed paid parking, according to the minutes, with students citing added financial stress and concern that it would make attending class harder. Mayor Steve responded that the local law under consideration changes only the council’s authority to amend parking rules by resolution, not whether paid parking will actually be implemented. The public hearing was held open through August 4 for further comment before the council closed it and adopted the law.
Main Street’s building stock got its own new rulebook August 4. The council adopted a Policy for the Review and Approval of Murals in the Historic District, drafted by the city’s Historic Commission. The policy formalizes what already applied under the existing Certificate of Appropriateness requirement: any painted exterior image on a building in the Historic District counts as an exterior modification and triggers mandatory Commission review. The policy requires the Commission to judge a proposed mural’s scale, color palette and compatibility with the surrounding historic architecture, bans painting directly on natural brick or stone, and requires that any mural installation be fully reversible without damaging the underlying building material. Appeals of Historic Commission decisions on murals go exclusively to the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals under the new policy.
The Historic District covers the Main Street corridor where buildings like the Schermerhorn Block, also known as the Newberry Building, sit under the Commission’s authority. Any property owner in the district who wants to add a mural now has a single written procedure to follow rather than relying on the Commission’s case-by-case judgment.
Money moved in smaller but still traceable amounts across both meetings. The council accepted a $100 donation from James and Cassandra Lewis for the Fire Department’s Automated External Defibrillators account, and a $1,749.98 donation from Dorothy Duff to buy a K9 ballistic vest for the Police Department’s K9 Atti. The council also adopted a revised Schedule of Fees, Fines and Penalties on August 4, effective the next day, replacing the schedule set the prior December by Resolution No. 196 of 2025.
On the finance side, the July 21 meeting carried its own paper trail of city dollars in motion. The council amended the 2026 General Fund Budget to shift $110,000 from a Law Department personal services line into professional services, covering litigation costs, and to increase Fire Department shift manning by $8,000 to cover staffing tied to medical time off, offset by cuts elsewhere in the fire budget. It amended the Water Fund budget to add $40,000 to the utilities line, covering underbudgeted costs, funded by trims to maintenance contracts, water sampling and equipment lines. It amended the Sewer Fund budget to add $960,236.50 in state aid, routed through an interfund transfer to the Sewer Plant Improvements account.
The council also authorized, on a 6 to 1 vote with Council Member Tom Conlon opposed, a contract of up to $30,000 with BST & Co. CPAs LLP to conduct a financial and operational accounting assessment. Director of Administration and Finance Chuck Shager told the council the city’s 2024 independent audit identified systematic reconciliation deficiencies tied to how grant and capital projects are budgeted and tracked, along with budgeting errors and outdated technology systems. Shager, who told the council July 21 was his final meeting in the role, also flagged a roughly $72,000 to $73,000 unbudgeted interest payment on a WIFIA federal water infrastructure loan, due December 1, 2026, and said the city’s year-to-date health reimbursement account spending sat at about $665,000 of a $1,150,000 budget, with total medical costs projected around $3 million against a $4.6 million budget.
The council also rezoned 47 parcels citywide from Central Business to Residential classifications on a 6 to 1 vote, with Council Member Brian Tobin opposed. The change stems from the city’s designation by New York State as a Pro-Housing Community and is meant to allow first-floor residential units on parcels adjacent to existing residential zones, units that are currently prohibited in the Central Business district. The zoning public hearing itself drew no public speakers.
The council abolished 29 civil service positions across nine job titles on a unanimous vote, including 10 laborer positions, 8 combined maintenance equipment operator positions, and single positions such as heavy equipment mechanic and chief water treatment plant operator. Eleven of the 29 abolished positions were already vacant, according to the table attached to the resolution. The city said the positions were identified as obsolete through a review of its authorized civil service roster, with some reclassified under the new CSEA contract.
The July 21 meeting opened with a proclamation honoring Fire Chief Wayne Friedman on his retirement after nearly 40 years in fire and emergency medical service. Friedman began with the Cuyler Volunteer Fire Department in 1987, joined the City of Cortland Fire Department in 2002, was promoted to assistant fire chief in 2010 and appointed chief in 2019. The council’s proclamation notes his selection as the 2026 New York State Career Fire Chief of the Year and his service on the board of directors of the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs. The council invited residents to a ceremonial walkout honoring Friedman on July 31, 2026.
Sources and verification
This story is drawn from the City of Cortland Common Council’s official meeting minutes for July 21, 2026, and meeting agenda for August 4, 2026, both published on the city’s Agenda Center at cortlandny.gov, along with the city’s posted 2026 Common Council meeting schedule. Dollar figures, vote tallies and resolution language are quoted or summarized directly from those documents.
