PROPOSAL SUBMITTED ON DEADLINE
Drawing On Surplus,
County ’17 Budget Even
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – The proposed county tax levy is up 0.4 percent in the preliminary budget that, by law, County Treasurer Dan Crowell had to deliver to Clerk of the County Board Carol McGovern by Tuesday, Nov. 15.
Applying surplus accrued over the past year, tax bills will stay even, he said.
The proposed levy – the amount that must be raised by local property taxes – is up $45,003 to $11,400,165, Crowell said. State subsidies and reimbursement cover the rest of the $105 million document.
CLICK HERE TO SEE PRELIMINARY 2017 COUNTY BUDGET
Budget Committee chair Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, said the public hearing is at 6 p.m. Nov. 28. The county board may then approve the document at its December meeting on the 7th.
Even with an essential even budget, things are being accomplished, he said. “There’s money going into roads, money going into the public safety building,” Frazier said. “We’re buying some equipment. We’re buying some vehicles.”
As is his practice, Crowell said, the budget is estimates revenues and costs conservatively. This created cushions in 2016 – the sales tax “outperformed” by $1.7 millon; $1.8 million in grants came in to help with the telecom project, and the state decided to increase road-paving subsidies – and he expects the same will occur in 2017.
The 2017 budget also makes permanent a number of new jobs created by the largely new county board in 2016: one clerk in the Public Defender’s Office and another in the Sheriff’s Department, one cleaner and a parttime clerk in Buildings & Grounds, one position each in Health and Mental Health.
