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CNY organizations bracing for potential changes during second Trump administration

Syracuse City Auditor Alex Marion speaks at a press conference in Syracuse on Thursday, January 16, 2025
Ellen Abbott
/
WRVO
Syracuse City Auditor Alex Marion speaks at a press conference in Syracuse on Thursday, January 16, 2025

Several Syracuse-area organizations are bracing for potential changes in federal policy and funding after the Trump Administration takes the reins of the federal government. City Auditor Alex Marion gathered them together on a cold winter day last week, to put a face on how the federal government impacts central New Yorkers.

For Brian Fay, who runs the Northeast Community Center in Syracuse, any decrease in federal dollars will hurt the 7,000 poverty-stricken individuals who benefit from the center’s programs.

"I think sometimes we lose sight of what federal dollars actually do in our neighborhood, locally,” Fay said. “This is direct funding, direct change, direct positive change in our neighborhoods."

Syracuse Fire Chief Michael Monds said his department depends on federal dollars for a variety of things, like staffing and equipment.

“And the most important part, I think, it helps us to do community outreach, installing smoke detectors, getting funding to get smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors," said Monds.

It’s not just the funds that Sally Santangelo of CNY Fair Housing is worried about losing. She remembers what it was like in the last Trump Administration.

"We did see this last time is they just don't fully fund the staff, fund federal agencies,” Santangelo said. “So things slow down, programs don't get implemented. And it becomes really inefficient and I expect we'll definitely see that."

These were among over a dozen local non-profit and governmental representatives venturing out on a frigid Syracuse morning to put a spotlight on the latest report from the city auditor’s office. Marion said the federal impact on Syracuse can't be minimized.

“So really everywhere you look there is an angle that is touched by our federal government,” said Marion. “And so we need to protect that and make sure people are aware of just how much that is impacting our community."

Marion won’t put a dollar figure on just how much federal cash flows through central New York, but including Social Security, Medicare, SSI and Medicaid it’s at least hundreds of millions. It’s in the billions if you add in the Interstate 81 and Micron projects.

“We're dealing with a federal environment that is incredibly uncertain,” Marion said. “We don't know where this money is going, if programs are going to drastically change, how quickly that might happen. So we want to be ready. We want to be prepared. And the best way we can be ready and prepared is by saying, ‘this is the data.’”

View the full report below.

Ellen produces news reports and features related to events that occur in the greater Syracuse area and throughout Onondaga County. Her reports are heard regularly in regional updates in Morning Edition and All Things Considered.