Proposed budget shows flat tax rate

YATES COUNTY--Yates County Treasurer Nonie Flynn has submitted the proposed 2018 budget for the Yates County legislature to review. The 2018 proposed numbers show the county will stay within the property tax cap and the property tax rate will stay flat at $6.53 per thousand, the same as the 2017 tax rate after rounding.
The total revenues are projected to increase in 2018 to $24,976,144 compared to $24,440,129 in 2017. The difference is $536,015 or 2.19 percent. Expenditures increase 2.89 percent from $41,572,591 to $42,773,163 in the proposed numbers.
The largest dollar amount change in the revenues comes from non-property taxes. That amount moves from $11,829,170 in 2017 to $12,050,500 in the 2018 projections.
In a correspondence by Flynn to the legislature, the detail for the non-property taxes reads, "Sales tax revenue is budgeted at $11.3 million. Historical revenue and percentage increases and higher projected fuel costs are the main factors. Occupancy tax is budgeted to be $40,000 higher than 2017 based on the 2017 revenue. The new law allowing counties to receive revenue on pre-paid cell phones is reflected in an increase in the communications revenue."
Also of note in the revenue column is an increase in federal aid by 3.45 percent. The increase is $107,140 with a note for the item saying "An additional $68,000 is budgeted for the jail for boarding federal prisoners."
While the state aid does increase overall by $134,972 for Yates County, it is mentioned that $137,000 was lost from state aid due to the loss of Seneca gaming revenue in the absence of an agreement between the Seneca Nation and New York state.
Looking at expenditures, the largest dollar amount is economic assistance with $10,996,175 in the proposed 2018 numbers. 2017 showed $10,634,698. The memo explains that line item saying, "The social services budget includes an increase in program costs of over $300,000 due to the addition of funds for youth currently in state training school. This is partially offset by a reduction in the projected number of children in foster care. An increased expenditure to the village of Penn Yan is due to the increase in room tax revenue from the two new hotels in the village."
The largest dollar amount changing for 2018 compared to 2017 is in the road expenditures. $715,299 extra is projected for 2018. This comes from increased employee training, the Loomis Road bridge repair and additional paving of 0.4 miles of roads.
The debt service line item saw the largest reduction comparing 2018 to 2017 with $216,751 being saved in the proposed budget. This was due to the expiration of communications debt.
The proposed plan also makes mention of some of the capital investment items for the upcoming year. Among them are included "upgrades to the court house security system, shower replacement in the jail, 10.1 miles of paving, one tandem haul truck, one mowing tractor, two one-ton trucks, a hydro-seeder, and one 1/2-ton pickup truck for the highway department, and six marked vehicles for the Sheriff's Department."
State mandates account for 63.13 percent of the tax levy, totaling $10,345,735. The county's contribution to the state's Medicaid program continues to be the county's largest single expense and represents 40.6 percent of all of the mandates and 25.6 percent of the tax levy.