County Wish List
$8M Over Target
Frazier, Crowell Confident Budget
Can Be Pared To Avoid Tax Hike
By JIM KEVLIN • for www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – The difference between departmental wish lists and the Budget Committee goal is $8 million, but the officials who have started crafting the 2017 county budget are undeterred.
“These are gotta-haves and wanna-haves,” said county Rep. Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, who is chairing the Board of Representatives’ Budget Committee for the third year. “My wife wanted a Cadillac and got a GMC Terrain.”
County Treasurer Dan Crowell, who was appointed the board’s budget officer again this year, said $8 million isn’t the biggest gap he’s seen: In his seven years in office, it’s been as high as $12 million at this point in the process and as low at $6 million.
The requests now total $96 million; the goal is $88 million, which would yield a stable tax rate, he said. The county budget in the past has reached $110 million, but sale of Otsego Manor and contracting out management of the transfer stations have lowered that.
“We’ll get there,” said Crowell. “I’m confident we’ll get to very low single digits.” Any tax hike, he predicted will “likely be under 1 percent.”
To avoid any last minute surprises, the treasurer had asked for general estimates from the two dozen department heads by mid-summer, and firmed up requests by Aug. 31. Preliminary line-by-line budgets were distributed to county reps at their September meeting on the 7th.
The Budget Committee met Sept. 1, and Frazier and Crowell expect it to meet two or three times this morning. By law, the budget officer is required to submit a preliminary budget to Clerk of the Board Carol McGovern by Nov. 15, for discussion and approval by the full board by year’s end.
