ITHACA, NY (607NewsNow) — Ithaca faces an unexpected budget shortfall.
During a budget meeting on Tuesday, City Manager Deb Mohlenhoff revealed a surprise $2.1 million gap after a lengthy executive session. Reading from a prepared statement, Mohlenhoff said the discovery was made during a manual review of the spending plan.
“Staff identified an error in the revenue section in the proposed budget that was initially send to Council,” Mohlenhoff said. “The error occurred when a draft revenue line was manually removed by staff during the budget development process, but due to a synchronization error, the change did not carry over to the underlying data budget set.”
“As a result, incorrect information was inadvertently included in the final document,” Mohlenhoff added.
At the end of her statement, the city manager discussed an immediate plan.
Before adjourning on Tuesday, Mayor Robert Cantelmo said, “any future budget meetings to discuss the proposed 2026 budget will be disseminated through the city website.”
The Common Council is currently set to vote on adopting the budget on Nov. 5.
