Saratoga Springs Mayor John Safford and Finance Commissioner JoAnne Kiernan on city's budget deficit, June 5th, 2026

About this episode

Saratoga Springs officials discuss the city's $5.1 million budget deficit and the measures being taken to address it.

Saratoga Springs, NY — Following an update on the city's finances, displaying a potential $5.1 million budget deficit, the Saratoga City Council approved a hiring freeze on Tuesday night. Finance Commissioner JoAnne Kiernan, who started her term in January 2026, showed the Council a powerpoint presentation detailing the City's financial situation. Kiernan tied the deficit in part to increasing overtime costs, health insurance, retirement and liability insurance. "Our employees and their benefits are 83% of our budget, so any employee-related thing is very expensive," Kiernan told CBS6 on Wednesday. "Everyone is seeing increased utility costs, increased material costs. It's just everything we're in an inflationary period, everything's more expensive." She says the hiring freeze is an "interim solution", giving them time to look deeper into the budget itself. They will now form a recovery leadership team, review vacant positions, identify critical positions and review purchasing, all while developing a revised 2026 budget. 0:00 – Intro & Fiscal SnapshotSetup of the interview and basic outline of the deficit. 1:30 – Deficit Numbers & Unsound BudgetHow the gap grew and why 2025’s…

People in this episode

Host: Tom Eschen

Guests: John Safford, JoAnne Kiernan

Topics covered

• budget deficit
• city council
• finance
• hiring freeze
• public safety
• inflation

Keywords

• budget deficit
• Saratoga Springs
• JoAnne Kiernan
• hiring freeze
• public safety
• inflation
• city council

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Saratoga Springs, New York

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