Greece, N.Y. (WHAM) — Jeff McCann said his first 100 days in office as Greece town supervisor have been dedicated to transparency.
“I’m really enjoying it,” McCann said. “We’re meeting with a lot of people, meeting with a lot of organizations. Really feel like things are heading in a good direction.”
He said part of that is peeling back the layers of last’s years town budget of $68 million under then-Supervisor Bill Reilich.
“There were a number of items that were not budgeted for in the 2025 budget for last year,” McCann said. “And that’s what we’re talking about in terms of the discrepancy there.”
BACKGROUND: Greece residents meet Town Board, new supervisor at community open house | Greece town supervisor proposes end to management sick leave payouts
In a press release, McCann called the practices “irresponsible.” He told 13WHAM Monday that one of the big costs that wasn’t budgeted for was spending on legal fees, about $1 million.
“As you know, we have five federal lawsuits against us, a couple state actions against us,” McCann said.
He also said there were positions people were working in that were not budgeted — something the town is trying to “right-size” going forward.
“There were a couple of positions that people were working in, people continued to work in and, lo and behold, there wasn’t money in the budget for the positions,” he said.
Greece Town Hall is pictured Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (Photo by Christian Garzone/WHAM)
McCann also claimed there was $3 million used for a storage facility for the town’s parks department, and about the same amount used for costs associated with a solar farm the town operates.
He also said the town — via its local development corporation, Munipro — owned two hotels on West Ridge Road and collected rent for about 20 years. That ended up being another hurdle.
“Those assets were liquidated and sold for a significant sum of money, but that money then was used to do a one-shot into the budget,” McCann said.
There is a pavilion on the edge of town, McCann said, that “they spent about $3 million on,” saying Munipro used to generate over $500,000 a year in assets that would go right to the town to offset the tax rate. However, Munipro’s revenues have depleted down to $265,000.
“It’s sort of a double whammy,” McCann said. “You’ve got the liquidation of the assets, you’ve got those dollars plugging, serving as a one-shot in the budget. And then also the regular Munipro line in the budget has gone down by almost half.”
McCann further claimed there was some $340,000 in sick leave paid out to some employees, in addition to covering health care costs. In all, he said, about $5 million was taken out of the town’s fund balance — like a rainy day cash pile — to accommodate the extra costs.
“It’s going to really put us in a real pickle as we head into next year,” he said.
McCann did promise he’s “committed to not raising taxes.”
That’s something I’m sure everybody on the Town Board is interested in,” he said.
McCann said using the fund balance going forward is unsustainable. Going line by line this summer and cutting some of this extra spending is a start.
Those payouts for sick time and free health insurance? Those will go away next budget, he said, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars automatically.
McCann said outside the extra 2025 one-shot spending, there is not a lot of extra “fat” to trim in the budget proper. He did say there are some other options to look at.
“We have some possible transactions to sell some of the property that was bought for economic development purposes, so we’re going to actually be in a position to sell some of that property and then use that to plug the holes in the budget,” McCann said.
If the town can manage the growth and the spending over a couple years, McCann said, “it will put everybody in a much better spot.”
Reilich told 13WHAM the town did not overspend by $5 million. He said the 2025 budget “was submitted to the state and audited by Mengel Metzger Barr & Co. accountants with no issues.” He also said he provided a $13 million surplus in the 2026 budget.