SYRACUSE, NY. Onondaga County’s adopted 2026 budget puts $1.6 billion in spending against a property tax levy that did not move year over year, a property tax rate that fell 11 percent to $2.93 per $1,000 of assessed value, and a sales tax projection that bakes in 1.5 percent revenue growth at a moment when tariffs and a softening retail economy are giving comptrollers across the Northeast indigestion. The legislature approved the package 12 to 4, along party lines, with Minority Leader Nodesia Hernandez absent due to hospitalization.

County Comptroller Martin D. Masterpole, the independently elected fiscal watchdog whose office is statutorily separated from the County Executive’s, is the figure most county residents will not see in the budget press release but whose office controls whether the assumptions inside it hold up. That makes the most consequential numbers of fiscal year 2026 the ones his office is publishing now in the wake of the 2024 audit cycle: a confirmed $5.7 million transfer from a county affiliated film hub corporation into the aquarium project, and roughly $2 million in unremitted room occupancy taxes that 15 county hotels self reported and never paid.

What the Adopted 2026 Budget Actually Contains

The headline numbers, sourced to the public hearing record and contemporaneous reporting on the October 2025 vote, line up as follows. Total spending is $1.6 billion, an increase of roughly 3 percent over the prior year. The county tax levy is flat. The county property tax rate dropped 11 percent to $2.93 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, a figure Ways and Means Committee Chair Colleen Gunnip described on the floor as “the lowest tax rate in over 50 years.” The tax rate has now fallen 42 percent since 2018 by the County Executive’s published count.

Inside the spending plan: $6 million for a replacement sheriff’s helicopter, with the contemporaneous Central Current reporting also placing a $6.75 million figure on the replacement aircraft line item depending on whether ancillary equipment is included. $700,000 to $750,000 for a drone first responder pilot in partnership with the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research alliance. $1.2 million for continued lead abatement, paired with a separately passed unanimous ordinance imposing $500 lead hazard fines every 60 days up to a $2,500 cap starting in 2026. $3.3 million in expanded local daycare funding. $4.2 million in lead mitigation in the broader category, per Central Current’s published tally. Body camera expansion to custody and corrections divisions. $300,000 for “public safety and surge initiatives.” $220 million in state mandate obligations covering Medicaid, Legal Aid, Temporary Assistance, Special Children’s Services, and Child Welfare. The budget did not draw from fund balance.

The vote split the legislature 12 to 4 along party lines. Republicans praised the tax restraint. Democrats argued the budget did not go far enough on housing or homelessness. Legislator Maurice Brown said the package “come[s] at a moral cost,” in remarks captured by Central Current. Majority Leader Brian May said the central achievement was holding the levy flat. Minority Leader Nodesia Hernandez missed the vote due to hospitalization.

The Sales Tax Bet and Who Made It

Sales tax is the single largest non property revenue line in the county’s general fund. County CFO Kristi Smiley and the executive branch built the 2026 budget on a projected 1.5 percent sales tax growth assumption, a figure Smiley’s team published despite explicitly naming tariffs and a softening economy as downside pressures.

That 1.5 percent number sets the trip wire for the rest of the year. Onondaga County shares its sales tax with the City of Syracuse, the towns, the villages, and the school districts within county borders by sharing resolution. The county’s combined sales tax rate is 8 percent, comprising 4 percent state and 4 percent local. If actual collections come in materially below the 1.5 percent growth assumption, the spending plan starts taking on water. If collections come in above, the executive branch ends 2026 with capacity to either accelerate capital improvements or build toward another rate cut.

What Comptroller Masterpole’s Office Has Flagged

Comptroller Marty Masterpole is the independently elected fiscal officer for Onondaga County. The Comptroller’s Department of Audit and Control, per the office’s own published mission statement, “serves in an oversight capacity to ensure fiscal integrity and accountability.” Two recent audit threads sit on top of any 2026 budget execution discussion.

The first is the aquarium and film hub thread. Masterpole’s office identified a $5.7 million transfer from the Greater Syracuse Soundstage Development Corporation, a county affiliated entity that controlled the now sold film hub property, to the Friends of the Aquarium. The Comptroller’s published view is that those dollars qualify as public funds and that their transfer is in tension with a county legislature pledge not to commit additional public dollars to the aquarium project. County Executive McMahon’s administration has publicly disputed that characterization. The question of whether the $5.7 million is public money or private donation is a live policy and political dispute as of this writing.

The second thread is the hotel room occupancy tax shortfall. Masterpole’s office identified 15 hotels within the county whose self reported room occupancy data and remitted taxes did not match. The aggregate underpayment exceeded $1.9 million. The hotels self reported the number of guests and the taxes owed but failed to remit the funds.

Both findings predate the 2026 budget but inform how outside observers should read the spending plan. A county that is collecting 1.5 percent sales tax growth on top of confirmed hotel occupancy tax leakage is running on tighter revenue margins than the headline rate cut implies.

ARPA Closeout and the Federal Deadline

Federal American Rescue Plan Act State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, known by their acronym SLFRF, are running on a published deadline ladder that affects Onondaga County alongside every other county in the country. SLFRF dollars had to be obligated by December 31, 2024. They must be fully expended by December 31, 2026, except for surface transportation and Housing and Community Development Act Title I projects, which must be fully spent by September 30, 2026.

The next ARPA reporting deadline for Onondaga County, in common with every SLFRF recipient, is April 30, 2026, which has now passed. Failure to submit a timely report can result in adverse Treasury action up to and including federal recapture of funds. The U.S. Treasury began direct outreach in September 2025 to invite specific communities to closeout. As of press time, CNY Signal has not received public confirmation of where Onondaga County sits in the Treasury closeout queue, and the comptroller’s office has not published an ARPA closeout audit. We will continue to report on that.

Pensions, OPEB, and the Long Tail

The county participates in the New York State and Local Retirement System administered by the State Comptroller’s office. Public employer pension contributions are set annually by the State Comptroller based on actuarial valuations, and Onondaga County’s adopted 2026 budget incorporates the contribution rates published by NYSLRS for the relevant fiscal year. Other Post Employment Benefits, abbreviated OPEB, are reported separately in the county’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. The most recent county ACFR, covering the year ended December 31, 2024, is the authoritative source for the county’s reported pension net obligation and total OPEB liability. The 2025 ACFR has not yet been released; under standard practice that document is published in mid to late 2026.

CNY Signal is not publishing specific dollar figures for the 2024 pension or OPEB liability lines in this article because direct verification of those figures requires the published 2024 ACFR document, which the comptroller’s office hosts as a PDF on its financial reports page. Readers tracking the specific net pension liability and net OPEB liability are directed to that document.

The Legislators Who Voted

The Onondaga County Legislature has 17 members, each elected from a single member district for two year terms. Timothy T. Burtis, a Republican from the 3rd District, serves as Chairman. Colleen Gunnip chairs Ways and Means Committee and managed the budget floor debate. Brian May is Majority Leader. Nodesia Hernandez is Minority Leader. Maurice “Mo” Brown is among the Democratic legislators who voted against the package. David H. Knapp, a Republican who has held leadership posts going back to 2012 and previously served as Ways and Means Committee Chair, sits on the Ways and Means committee for the current term and chairs Planning and Economic Development. The county legislature’s published roster on its 2025 roster document, and the legislature’s members page, are the authoritative public sources for each legislator’s district, party, and committee assignments.

The Comptroller is elected independently from the County Executive and from the legislature. Marty Masterpole, a Democrat, won re election to a second four year term in November 2023 and remains in that role through the 2026 budget cycle. His office can be reached at 315 435 2130.

What to Watch in Q2 and Q3

Three things drive whether the 2026 budget closes balanced. First, sales tax actuals versus the 1.5 percent growth assumption. The Comptroller publishes a monthly sales tax report on the office’s financial reports page. Five months of actuals will start to reveal whether the assumption holds. Second, the December 31, 2026 ARPA expenditure deadline. Funds that are not spent by year end risk federal recapture. Third, the resolution of the aquarium and film hub funding dispute. A formal county legislature response to the comptroller’s $5.7 million finding would change the political math for 2027 budget construction.

The county comptroller’s office, the County Executive’s finance team led by CFO Kristi Smiley, and the legislature’s Ways and Means Committee under Chair Gunnip are the three constituent groups whose public actions over the next two quarters will determine whether the 2026 plan ends in surplus, deficit, or restated.

Sources and Verification

• Onondaga County Comptroller’s Office, Financial Reports page (onondaga.gov/comptroller/financialreports/). 2024 Comprehensive Annual Financial Statements, 2026 Monthly Sales Tax Report, 2026 Sales Tax Yearly Schedule.
• Onondaga County Legislature, “2026 County Budget” October 2, 2025 public hearing record (onondaga.gov/legislature/2025/10/02/2026-county-budget/). $2.93 per $1,000 rate, $220 million state mandate total, $3.3 million daycare line, $1.2 million lead funding.
• WAER Public Media, “Onondaga County lawmakers give final approval to $1.6 billion budget,” October 14, 2025. Final vote, tax levy flat, McMahon priorities.
• Central Current, “Eyes in the sky and fines for lead: Onondaga County Leg approves $1.6B budget for 2026.” Vote tally 12 to 4, line items including helicopter, drones, body cameras, public safety surge, Hernandez absence, Maurice Brown floor remarks.
• Central New York Business Journal, “Onondaga County Legislature approves 2026 county budget with 11 percent cut in property tax rate.” Tax rate cut, 42 percent reduction since 2018.
• Central Current, “Is Onondaga County using more public funds to develop the aquarium? County exec says no. Some Democrats think so.” Masterpole $5.7 million Greater Syracuse Soundstage Development Corporation to Friends of the Aquarium audit finding.
• CNY Central, “Onondaga County hotels had audits, but never paid room occupancy taxes.” Comptroller audit identifying 15 hotels and nearly $2 million unremitted.
• National Association of Counties ARPA SLFRF Guidance and National League of Cities FAQ (Feb 2026). Federal obligation and expenditure deadlines.
• Office of the New York State Comptroller, OPEB Guidance (osc.ny.gov). Pension and OPEB reporting framework for county participants in NYSLRS.
• Onondaga County Legislature 2025 Roster (legislature members page). 17 member legislature, single member districts, leadership identifications.

Editorial note: CNY Signal does not publish specific 2024 net pension liability or total OPEB liability figures in this article. Those numbers are recorded in the county’s 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report PDF, which is publicly available on the comptroller’s financial reports page. CNY Signal will report the specific figures in a follow up piece after directly extracting them from that primary document.