Albany wants to tax the paychecks of people who work there but live here. The Common Council votes on asking Albany for the power Monday night.

If you drive to Albany for work, the city would like a piece of your paycheck. On Monday, October 19 the Albany Common Council takes up a resolution asking the State Legislature to let the city tax the wages of people who work within its limits but live somewhere else. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at City Hall and streamed on the council’s YouTube and Facebook pages, and the resolution is marked “under consideration,” which means the council can act on it the same night it is introduced.

Nine of the fifteen members have put their names on it: Derek Johnson, the prime sponsor, with Alfredo Balarin, Owusu Anane, Jahmel Robinson, Thomas Hoey and council members Adams, Jones, Lumpkin and Williamson. Nine is a majority.

What the resolution asks, and what it does not

Albany cannot create an income tax on its own. The state constitution reserves that power to the Legislature, so the resolution is a request: it “calls upon the New York State Legislature to enact, and the Governor to sign, legislation granting the City of Albany specific authority to impose a tax upon the wages or earnings of individuals who are not residents of the City of Albany but who earn income from employment or self-employment within the City.”

The text sets no rate. It asks that the state let the city set the rate later by local law “subject to appropriate limitations,” allow “exemptions, credits, thresholds, or other provisions designed to protect low-income workers,” and have Albany’s own state delegation introduce the bill “during the next legislative session,” which begins in January. It also asks the mayor to produce “an analysis of the potential revenue generated by various tax rates, the estimated number of affected workers, administrative costs, and potential economic impacts.” That analysis does not exist yet; the memo from the council’s counsel lists the fiscal impact as “None. This resolution has no binding effect.”

The number in circulation is three tenths of one percent. WNYT reported it that way on Friday, and the resolution’s own history points there: in 2005 the council passed a similar request for “a non-resident worker tax of one-third of one percent,” and the state never acted on it. At that rate, a worker earning $50,000 in Albany would pay $150 a year; at $70,000, $210; at $100,000, $300.

Why Albany is asking

The city’s case, laid out in the counsel’s memo, is that about 60 percent of the property value in Albany is tax-exempt, and the biggest exempt owners are also the biggest employers: state offices, the college campuses and the hospitals. The memo cites an estimate that the city’s daytime population runs nearly 70 percent above its resident population. Council member Anane put it to WNYT this way: “We’re asking them to pay a nominal fee.”

The timing is the budget. Mayor Dorcey Applyrs proposed a $257 million general fund budget for 2027 on October 1 with a 15 percent property tax levy increase, a new half-percent city sales tax, $9.1 million in cuts and ten layoffs, against a $26 million deficit this year and $35 million projected for next. That is on top of $40 million in state aid for the city in the current state budget. Majority Leader Balarin first raised a commuter tax on the council floor October 5, alongside the sales tax and larger payments in lieu of taxes for the Harriman campus and the Empire State Plaza.

What it means on this side of the river

Census employment data for 2022 counts about 15,500 Rensselaer County residents holding jobs inside the City of Albany, including roughly 600 who live in the Town of Schaghticoke. Troy, East Greenbush, North Greenbush and Schodack send the most. County-wide, a Census survey of commuting puts Rensselaer residents working anywhere in Albany County at about 31,600, or two in five of the county’s workers.

For the state workers, Albany Med and St. Peter’s staff, SUNY employees and everyone else on that list, the tax would come out of the paycheck the way Yonkers’ does. Yonkers is the one city in the state that has such a tax today, at half a percent, under a 1984 law written so narrowly that it applies only to Yonkers. New York City’s commuter tax, which ran for 33 years, was repealed in 1999 by legislators from the suburbs.

That history is the obstacle. Sen. Pat Fahy, whose district is the city of Albany, told WNYT: “I think my colleagues would have a hard time on that.” Any bill would need votes from legislators whose constituents are the ones who would pay.

The county’s answer

The Rensselaer County Legislature’s majority was first out of the gate. A post on the Rensselaer County Legislators Facebook page on October 16, with a photo of the resolution, asked: “How would you like to pay a new tax to the City of Albany just because you work in the city?” It went on: “Not only would you have to continue to navigate safely through traffic cameras, speed zone cameras, parking meters, and school zones without getting a ticket, you will have to give up part of your income to support the City of Albany, just for the privilege of working there,” and closed, “You can count on the Legislature Majority to oppose this shortsighted cash grab.” The legislature has not taken a formal vote, and we found no statement yet from County Executive Steve McLaughlin.

The people who would actually decide are in the State Senate and Assembly, and four of them are on our ballot in sixteen days: Jake Ashby and Devin Lander for the 43rd Senate District, Scott Bendett and Chloe Pierce for the 107th Assembly District. None of the four has said anything we could find about an Albany commuter tax. It is a fair question to put to them before November 3; our voter guide has their contacts and the early voting dates.

What happens next

If the council adopts the resolution Monday, copies go to the governor, the legislative leaders and Albany’s delegation, and the ask moves to the session that opens in January. Written comment to the council is due by noon Monday through the public comment form on the council’s website, or in person before the meeting. We will report the vote.

Sources: Resolution 113.102.26R and the memorandum from Corporation Counsel’s office dated October 9, 2026, in the Common Council’s October 19 supporting legislation packet and the agenda and active calendar; the council’s October 5 minutes; WNYT, “Albany commuter tax proposed to help close $55 million deficit”, October 16, 2026; WAMC and Spectrum News coverage of the mayor’s October 1 budget proposal; Sen. Fahy’s May 26, 2026 release on state aid to the city; the Rensselaer County Legislators Facebook post of October 16, 2026, as shared by a reader; New York Tax Law section 1340 for the Yonkers tax; and the U.S. Census Bureau’s LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics for 2022 (all jobs, in-state residents) and 2016 to 2020 county-to-county commuting flows. The job counts are our tabulation of the Census files; the per-paycheck examples are our arithmetic at three tenths of one percent.