Randy Taylor touts accomplishments of first 100 days as SBY Mayor

SALISBURY, Md. – Salisbury Mayor Randy Taylor is touting his first 100 days in office as a move to more conservative spending in the city, as he says the current funding level the city has been on will not stand moving forward.

“We’ve had some tax increases and we’ve had some assessment increases, which has helped the positive side on the revenue side of the city. But the question becomes how do we manage that? And I think to some degree and I think we learned it very clearly in this last session of budget, which is complete, we’re ready to vote it in, was that the trajectory is not good,” Taylor said.

He says the biggest expense; staffing, from Police and Fire union, raises.

“This year alone, the union negotiation, basically we paid a million-two more than we had agreed to relative to our initial offer,” Taylor said.

Taylor tells WMDT the city had COVID dollars to spend in years past- without that he says a more solid vision is needed- to keep the budget balanced- as those wages will only grow- with or without the revenue to back them.

“We’ve had a union negotiation, you know, a 2% raise in the payroll of the city is a 750,000 conversation, so just that alone would take $75 million of assessments just to break even,” he said.

He says he is also looking to unwind parts of Salisbury’s Vision Zero commitments, shifting more focus on traditional car transport in the city.

Taylor says the way he really hopes people notice his tenure; quality-of-life improvements.

“I hope it’s in little things like pruning at the park, lighting at the park, lighting on their streets, curbs and gutters that get repaired. And we’re working on those making those less. We’ve got files of people that have been backlogged for a while that haven’t gotten the attention they deserve,” Taylor said.

Taylor looking at the next 100 days – he plans to continue supporting small businesses in downtown and across the area with more events utilizing the inland spaces and approaching good weather, including soon-to-be-completed Unity Square.

He says the latest example will be Music on Main; where artists are encouraged to be in downtown throughout the week to help build that positive atmosphere.