CLICK TO SEE 2018 BUDGET
CROWELL ISSUES
’18 BUDGET WITH
MINISCULE HIKE
Local Folks Paying Less Per Capita
Than Any County In New York State
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – County Treasurer Dan Crowell, who at age 42 is retiring at year’s end after eight years in the job, delivered a tentative 
2018 budget to the county Board of Representatives this afternoon that increases the tax levy by $7,591.
Yes, $7,591 to $11,400,175, or a .07 percent increase. That’s 1/70th of a cent on the dollar.
He also released the latest state data as part of budget packet that shows every man, woman and child is paying $200 per capita, less than any county in New York State. (There’s a lag: the figures are from 2015, but are updated annually in the county budget material.)
“I’m very pleased,” said Crowell, the understatement of the year. “We’re leaving” – meaning, he is – “one of the most financially sound counties in the state, with a fund balance that’s been stabilized for three years now.”
The total budget is $110,271, 089, about the same as this year, with the balance made up by sales and bed tax, and targeted allocations in state money for mandated programs.
The new document is not a stand-pat budget. It includes the first raises for department heads in years and raises for deputies based on a contract achieved a month ago.
It also includes improvements in the county’s self-insurance health program: Access to “telemedicine” and an employee assistance program for times of mental stress, and dropping co-pays on preventive care. Those benefit increases, contained in the contract with deputies, will be phased in across the board as other labor contracts are agreed upon.
While the county board itself is often rife with dissension and controversy, Crowell said, the stability has achieved ” through the efforts of the department heads and their staffs. In those lean years (after the Crash of 2008), we were able to build up a fund balance and maintain a flat tax rate without sacrificing.”
The next step is for the county board to set a hearing on the budget, and to approve it – as required by state law – in December, so the spending document will be in place when the new board assumes office Jan. 1.