Preliminary county budget below tax cap

YATES COUNTY--Yates County Treasurer and Budget Officer Nonie Flynn released the 2017 preliminary budget information last week, indicating the tax levy is expected to remain within the tax cap next year. She said the tax levy is expected to increase 1.87 percent, which amounts to a $299,913 increase for a total levy of $16,323,357. In addition to the small levy increase, Flynn said the tax rate will decrease by 1.15 percent to $6.64 per $1,000 of assessed value, down from $6.72.
Flynn said the state tax cap would have allowed for an increase of 2.08 percent in the tax levy. However, the preliminary budget numbers show the county could remain $34,083 below the cap.
Overall, Flynn said the proposed expenditures for 2017 are budgeted at 1.01 percent less than that adopted in 2016, amounting to $41,468,576 in total expenses in 2017. This is a decrease of $424,937. However, she said the proposed revenues for 2017 are budgeted at 1.56 percent less than that adopted in 2016. This amounts to a decrease of $373,644.
Flynn has also made six recommendations for the 2017 budget for the legislature to consider amounting to a further reduction of $47,477. These include legislative decisions on raises for two commissioners and one deputy commissioner for the county board of elections. The legislature must also make a decision based on an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruling for a public defender secretary. The budget officer also recommends the Cornell Cooperative Extension requested line item be reduced by $15,000 to its 2016 level.
The budget officer said the proposed 2017 budget includes all expenditures approved in the Capital Improvement Plan totaling $2,964,722. Flynn said this includes one half-ton truck, one three-quarter-ton truck, a tandem snow truck and a rubber tire excavator for the highway department along with five marked vehicles and one unmarked vehicle for the sheriff's department. She also said the proposed 2017 budget includes a 2 percent salary increase as negotiated by the Council 82 Law Enforcement and Council 82 Other Collective Bargaining Agreements.
"The State of New York directs Yates County to fund several programs, including Medicaid, Retirement, Community College, Social Services Programs, Education of Handicapped Children, Probation, Indigent Defense, Workers' Compensation and Early Intervention," Flynn said. "Altogether, these mandated net expenses account for 61.9 percent of the tax levy totaling $10,034,819. The county's contribution to the state's Medicaid program continues to be the county's largest single expense and represents 42.5 percent of all of the mandates."
Flynn also proposed the creation of a tax stabilization reserve fund in the upcoming budget.
"There are a variety of large expenditures over which the county has no control," Flynn said. "These are primarily financial requirements imposed by state or federal law."
She listed mandates in community college, pension, state training school and foster care, health insurance, public defense and district attorney's salaries as the areas that often see increases without additional state aid.
"Based on the above large amounts that could be added to a budget each year, I propose we establish a tax stabilization reserve fund which would be available to fund any of these potentially large increases to the budget and therefore alleviating the possibility of a large tax increase in the future," Flynn said. "It would be prudent to fund this reserve with at least $500,000 from the 2016 year end unassigned fund balance."
The legislature will have an opportunity to make any additional changes during their two-day budget workshop later this month. The workshops are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 24 and 25, starting at at 9 a.m. in the legislative chambers.