Month: August 2026

Former Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi has posted a defense on her personal Facebook page of her management of the city’s finances during her two years in office. The city has found that she ran deficits in every budget she crafted during her four years in office, including the current budget under which the city is operating, which shows an approximately $5 million deficit.

Sanghvi cites all the increases in costs during her terms as contributing to the city’s financial problems, and they are considerable. It is true that retirement costs, health insurance, etc. have all been increasing, contributing to financial stress in many local municipalities, including Saratoga. Sanghvi does, however, make one stunning admission of culpability on her part alone: her failure to plan how the city would pay for major expenses incurred on her watch and with her support. Consistent with her chronic mismanagement, she seems unaware of the gravity of her admission. In her piece, she writes:

Now here is the thing about fire-fighters overtime. The mayor signed an agreement with the fire-fighters union about making sure there were 4 people on a firetruck. There are several studies that show that this is safer for fire-fighters. But it is also important to note that in Saratoga Springs a mayor can sign ANY agreement with unions on their pay, benefits, etc. without getting a financial impact statement from the Finance department. I should have asked the mayor to wait on that agreement and should have provided the city a financial impact statement as they do at the county. (But this is something I have learned from my time as County Supervisor) [JK:Emphasis added]

So, what is a “financial impact study?” It is a fancy phrase for whether something is affordable. It is beyond stunning that Sanghvi would make this statement, because it speaks to the folly of all her budgets that included many additional items for the city’s operations, which she approved and voted for, for which she apparently did not bother to conduct “impact statements.”

She Was Warned

In a post way back on October 5, 2022, I warned in this blog that the SAFER grant to hire the sixteen firefighters that the city had applied for was a time bomb. I wrote to Sanghvi repeatedly, asking what the plan was for paying for these additional firefighters after the grant ended, and never received a reply.

When Mayor Kim brought the contract with the firefighters’ union, referred to in the above quote, before the Council for adoption, he cavalierly noted that the city’s labor attorney had warned him to include a sunset clause in the agreement, which he dismissed. The contract, which Sanghvi voted for, would require the city to spend approximately an additional $2,000,000.00 a year to cover the cost of these firefighters once the federal grant ended. Sanghvi now admits as Finance Commissioner she should have planned for this. It is truly amazing that in four years as Finance Commissioner this never occurred to her. Since it is in the contract without a sunset clause, we are perpetually locked into paying this money. It is a major factor in the city’s current fiscal crisis.

Her Statement

I have made it a policy not to respond to attacks. But I am tired of the people trying to reframe my record as finance commissioner. HERE ARE SOME FACTS:

We submitted the Annual Financial Report to the State Comptroller on time all 4 years.

My team and the city maintained AA+ credit rating all 4 years.

All budgets were presented on time and adopted on time (unlike many other municipalities around) without exceeding the tax cap.

And the city had a “no designation” for its fiscal stress score (which means that the city was not under fiscal stress).

AND we collected 12 years’ worth of delinquent taxes that the new administration stalled as soon as they took office.

I was the most transparent Finance Commissioner providing information on our revenues (which were good) and our rising expenses and overtime (which were major constraints). I did this at every meeting and especially during budget season.

Here is what happened – Our economy jumped back after 2020. But so did inflation.

An ambulance that cost $180,000 in 2019 was costing $587,000 in 2026.

Other costs went up –

Liability Insurance went up 188% increasing from $834,732 in 2022 to $2,408,693 to 2026

There was an 86% increase in retirement costs from $4,441,742 from 2022 to $9,951,409 to 2026

Health Insurance costs increased 27% from $7,823,776 to $9,951,409

This is all published data from the city budgets that I have presented. Almost every budget season we talked about the rising costs and beseeched the departments to cut costs and stop hiring new people.

During this time the public safety budget went up over $10 million. And yet, they were constantly going over budget because of overtime. Now here is the thing about fire-fighters overtime. The mayor signed an agreement with the fire-fighters union about making sure there were 4 people on a firetruck. There are several studies that show that this is safer for fire-fighters. But it is also important to note that in Saratoga Springs a mayor can sign ANY agreement with unions on their pay, benefits, etc. without getting a financial impact statement from the Finance department. I should have asked the mayor to wait on that agreement and should have provided the city a financial impact statement as they do at the county. (But this is something I have learned from my time as County Supervisor)

We tried our best to plan better so we were better financially prepared for the future. We created the strategic budget and forecasting group and we tried to get better forecasts for future expenses and revenues. We worked with different departments to help them better understand the financial issues. I also requested both mayors that I served with to help create a strategic plan for the city so we were all working towards the same vision.

Inflation and rising costs are hitting many cities around the country. Closer to home, Schenectady, Albany and many other cities are going through the exact same issue. So, trying to blame me for something that is happening everywhere is just petty politics.

Minita Sanghvi

[JK: I received the following from Tim Coll, Commissioner of Public Safety.]

Open Letter to Times Union Reporter Wendy Liberatore

When I first ran for office several years ago, I promised to correct the record when necessary, and I will do so yet again.

On August 18, 2026, Times Union reporter Wendy Liberatore mischaracterized a proposed capital plan in the City of Saratoga Springs. Rather than waiting for the presentation on August 19, 2026, she concluded that the City was committing $14 million to a new police facility amid a $5 million deficit.

In fact, as I pointed out during the public hearing, this was a needs assessment in which all City departments submitted their capital needs. It was also pointed out that only approximately $2.7 million of the capital projects presented may potentially be funded. The remaining requests represented identified capital needs.

Yes, Liberatore is correct that the City is facing a fiscal crisis. Former Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi left the City with a significant financial mess, and this Council is now focused on correcting those problems while moving the City forward.

I also pointed out during the public hearing that a new joint venture with DPW was initiated and that the City has issued an RFP to retain a commercial broker to assist with the sale of certain City properties and potentially acquire another. If this works out, we may be able to address some of our infrastructure needs without any cost to the taxpayers.

Liberatore’s history of careless reporting and advancing a false narrative critical of our police department needs to stop. Our officers deserve fair, accurate, and responsible coverage, just like everyone else.

The public deserves accurate reporting, not conclusions drawn before all of the facts are presented. I encourage Ms. Liberatore to watch the entire meeting and review the facts before continuing to report on these issues.

The facts matter, and I will continue to correct the record when it is misstated.

Respectfully,

Tim Coll

Public Safety Commissioner

Saratoga Springs, NY

I feel for the last four years I have been like Cassandra, warning that former Saratoga Springs Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi’s budgets were thrown together with little understanding of the city’s spending, let alone planning for the future. I warned in this blog that this would lead to a budget deficit that would challenge this community. Well, the numbers are out, and they are even worse than I anticipated, leaving the city in a major financial hole that will require a lot of pain to fill.

The following graph, prepared by the Finance Department in order to educate the public on the seriousness we face, is from a city release. Each tan column represents the actual spending each year. The blue line represents how much income the city took in each year. The red and green columns represent how much the city overspent/underspent each year. It is important to note that in the first column for the year 2022, the budget was prepared not by Commissioner Sanghvi but by her predecessor, Michele Madigan. Not coincidentally, that (the green column in the lower left) was the only year that the city actually operated within its budget, leaving a fund balance (reserve) for Commissioner Sanghvi of a whopping seventeen million dollars which Sanghvi has recklessly squandered.

There is still a significant amount of time before this fiscal year is over, so it is an inexact art to project what it will cost the city to operate for the balance of the year and how deep in the red we will be. Regrettably, there is little doubt much of our fund balance will have been exhausted to fill Sanghvi’s budget holes. The city’s policies and procedures require that the city fund balance represent at least 10% and no more than 25% of the city budget; the city will have little in the way of resources to fill what will be a widening gap next year.

The Chart

The Full Press Release