The Oswego Common Council holds a public hearing Monday night on a local law that would let the city exceed the state’s property tax levy limit for the second consecutive year, one of 15 resolutions on an agenda that also includes a $500,000 state grant for the animal shelter, a new downtown mural fund and a $46,000 budget fix for the High Dam hydroelectric plant.
The Oswego Common Council will hold a public hearing at 7:10 p.m. Monday, August 10, 2026, on a proposed local law that would authorize the city to set its 2027 property tax levy above the limit set by New York General Municipal Law §3-c, according to the council’s official meeting agenda posted by the city clerk’s office on August 6. The regular council session follows at 7:30 p.m. in Common Council Chambers at City Hall, 13 West Oneida Street.
This story came from public records we pulled ourselves
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The measure, listed as Local Law No. 2 of the Year 2026, appears on the agenda as Resolution No. 254, one of 15 resolutions the seven-member council is scheduled to act on that evening. The council authorized the public hearing two weeks earlier, on July 27, 2026, through Resolution No. 244, titled “Authorize Public Hearing, Re: Proposed Local Law No. *2 of the Year 2026, A Local Law Authorizing a Property Tax Levy in Excess of the Limit Established in General Municipal Law §3-c,” according to that meeting’s agenda.
New York’s tax cap law, in effect since 2012, generally limits the year-over-year growth of a municipality’s property tax levy to 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower, before accounting for exclusions such as certain capital debt service. A municipal governing board can override that limit only by adopting a local law approved by at least 60 percent of its total voting power, which for Oswego’s seven-member council means at least five affirmative votes.
Records from the city’s public meeting portal show this is not the first time the council has taken this step. On August 25, 2025, the council approved Local Law No. 2 of the Year 2025, an identically worded override of the same state statute, as Resolution No. 240. That vote came the same night the council adopted the proposed 2026 city operating budget and tax warrant as Resolution No. 241, and the same night it approved an $11,170,000 bond resolution to pay for improvements to the city’s water distribution system, according to the August 25, 2025 council agenda.
This year’s override vote is landing earlier in the summer than last year’s. The 2025 public hearing and vote fell on August 25; the 2026 hearing and vote are scheduled for August 10, fifteen days sooner on the calendar. The Aug. 10 agenda does not include a resolution to adopt the 2027 operating budget, meaning that step, if it follows last year’s pattern of pairing the tax cap override with budget adoption, has not yet been scheduled as of this reporting.
The city’s tax cap questionnaire and levy calculation for the 2027 fiscal year were not included among the documents published with the August 10 agenda packet. The published agenda states only the statutory citation being overridden, not a specific proposed levy amount or percentage increase.
The council that will vote on this year’s override looks different from the one that voted last year. A side-by-side reading of the letterhead on the city’s official agenda documents shows six of the seven ward seats have changed hands since August 2025. The August 11, 2025 agenda lists Kyle Walton (Ward 1), Shawn Burridge (Ward 2, council vice president), Jesse Vanucchi (Ward 3), Shawn Walker (Ward 4), John Gosek (Ward 5), Timothy Plunkett (Ward 6, council president) and Christopher Squitieri (Ward 7). The August 10, 2026 agenda lists Chance Kennedy (Ward 1), Jonathan Ashline (Ward 2), Laurel Lautensack (Ward 3), John FitzGibbons (Ward 4, now council president), William Myer (Ward 5, now council vice president), Timothy Plunkett (Ward 6) and Shane Thompson (Ward 7). Plunkett is the only councilor whose name appears on both letterheads, and he has moved from the council presidency to a ward seat without a listed title. Mayor Robert A. Corradino is named on both documents.
The council’s official web address also changed between the two documents. The 2025 agenda letterhead lists the city’s website as www.oswegony.org; the 2026 agenda letterhead lists it as www.oswegony.gov.
Monday’s agenda carries a mix of routine and notable items beyond the tax cap vote. Resolution No. 259 would accept a $500,000 grant from the New York State Companion Animal Capital Projects Fund and authorize the city chamberlain to advance funds for an expansion of the Oswego animal shelter, with the council waiving its usual committee-review process under Resolution No. 258 to bring both that item and Resolution No. 260 to the floor directly. Resolution No. 260 would authorize the city’s participation in the CHARM Grant Program to fund a downtown mural.
Two fiscal items originated at the Administrative Services Committee’s August 3, 2026 meeting. Resolution No. 256 would authorize the mayor to sign Supplemental Request No. 2 with the engineering firm JMT of New York, Inc., in the amount of $30,278.60, for additional professional services on the Riverwalk West project between Bridge Street and West Utica Street, according to the committee’s agenda. Resolution No. 257 would authorize the city chamberlain to complete a $46,000 budget amendment to the High Dam Utilities Account to cover a new monthly customer charge from the state Public Service Commission, per the same committee document.
Resolution No. 255 would extend the city’s moratorium on certain renewable energy systems. That moratorium was first adopted a year ago as Local Law No. 1 of the Year 2025, approved August 11, 2025, following a public hearing the same evening, according to that year’s agenda.
The Riverwalk West engineering request is not a standalone item. The resolution language authorizing JMT’s Supplemental Request No. 2 implies a first supplemental request already exists under the same contract, indicating the West Bridge Street to West Utica Street segment of the Riverwalk is an ongoing, multi-phase engineering effort rather than a single one-time expense. It follows a summer in which the council also authorized an $11.17 million bond for water distribution system improvements in 2025, and it lands on an agenda that separately proposes a $46,000 fix to keep the High Dam hydroelectric plant’s utility account solvent against a new state-imposed charge, underscoring how much of the council’s routine business this time of year is driven by aging water and power infrastructure rather than by the property tax question that headlines Monday’s hearing.
The Administrative Services Committee’s business earlier in the summer shows a similar pattern of infrastructure and public safety spending working its way toward the full council. At its July 6, 2026 meeting, the committee took up a $88,090 budget amendment requested by Fire Chief Paul Conzone to purchase mobile computer-aided dispatch units, and a $59,669 budget amendment requested by Police Chief Phillip Cady to spend previously awarded Law Enforcement Technology Grant funds on department materials and supplies, according to that meeting’s agenda. The same meeting included a discussion item, raised jointly by Chief Cady and Planning and Zoning Administrator Jeff McGann, on the demolition of the former Shapiro building, and a request for council authorization to accept a $145,232 bid from Guardian Environmental Products to furnish rotary scum skimmer equipment for settling tanks at the Eastside Wastewater Treatment Plant. The committee also considered a request from Commissioner of Public Works and Parks and Recreation Craig Rebeor to authorize the Oswego County Sheriff’s Office to purchase fuel at cost for its marine vessel.
A zoning matter is also on the docket. Resolution No. 253 would refer a petition from Darrell Pfiffner, described as the contract purchaser of real property at 37 West Cayuga Street, requesting a change of zone from TN1 (Traditional Neighborhood 1) to TD (Traditional Downtown), to the city Planning Board for an advisory opinion.
The remaining resolutions cover routine public-space authorizations common to Oswego summers: National Grid seeks approval under Resolution No. 248 to install a utility pole between the curb and sidewalk at 249 West Fifth Street. Oswego County’s Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) seeks authorization under Resolution No. 249 to host a Community Health Outreach Fair in Breitbeck Park on August 26. Resident Susan McBrearty seeks approval under Resolution No. 250 for a block party on West Fifth Street on August 15. Christine Wills seeks authorization under Resolution No. 251 to hold a “Glow and Flow” event at Wright’s Landing Marina and in the Oswego Harbor, also on August 15. And Eason Lee seeks approval under Resolution No. 252 to host a wedding at Breitbeck Park on the same day as the council meeting, August 10. Resolution No. 247 would appoint a new commissioner of deeds, and Resolution No. 246 would approve the minutes of the council’s July 27, 2026 meeting.
The council’s committee structure fed several of Monday’s fiscal resolutions through a review step first. The Administrative Services Committee, chaired by Councilor Plunkett, met August 3 to review the JMT supplemental request and the High Dam budget amendment before they reached the full council’s agenda. That committee also reviewed and approved minutes from its July 6, 2026 meeting, at which it had considered budget amendments for fire department dispatch equipment and police department technology grant funds, and discussed the demolition of the former Shapiro building, according to that meeting’s minutes.
City residents can review the full text of the resolutions and Local Law No. 2 of the Year 2026 at City Hall or through the city’s public meeting portal in advance of Monday’s 7:10 p.m. hearing. Public comment on the tax cap override is scheduled to be taken during that hearing, ahead of the 7:30 p.m. start of the regular council session.
Sources and verification
This report is based on the official meeting agendas and committee documents published by the City of Oswego through its CivicClerk public meeting portal, cross-referenced against the city’s Common Council roster page. Every dollar figure, resolution number, date and name above is drawn directly from those documents, cited individually below.
