AUBURN — A budget is beginning to take shape as Cayuga County legislators made proposed cuts and additions during a special Ways and Means Committee meeting Wednesday night.Ìý
This first pass legislators cut approximately $219,000 from their use of the county's fund balance, which is similar to a savings account. That left the draw on the fund balance at approximately $463,000, below .Ìý
Part of that savings came from a change in the state tax cap. With the county administrator responsible for estimating numbers in the state's formula for calculating that cap, . With numbers finalized, she told legislators Wednesday that the state tax cap is higher than her original number, coming in at a 0.975 percent increase.
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Legislators in the committee voted to increase the tax cap to 0.975 percent, which added approximately $104,504 in revenue from property taxes.Ìý
"This budget has been developed under the weight of state mandates with a less than 1 percent property tax cap, and unfunded mandates such as indigent defense as well as other factors such as declining sales tax, increases in health insurance costs and lack of new revenue sources for the county," said Aileen McNabb-Coleman, chairman of the committee. "This Legislature wants to help the county provide quality services and programs while living within our means, and beginning to invest in ourselves."
Besides property taxes, legislators went through each committee, acknowledging which departments had saved the county money, and which departments were costing the county money. Health and Human Services, which includes departments like Mental Health and Social Services, costs the county the most amount of money but also generates a significant portion of the revenue. Ray Bizzari, director of Community Services, said his departments also provide mostly state mandated services.
Two items were left in limbo by night's end and those were funding extra hours for the Ward W. O'Hara Agricultural Museum and funding for the Cayuga County Public Utility Service Agency. Currently the museum has budgeted an additional $9,000 to fund seasonal staff for Sundays and Mondays.Ìý
Keith Batman, chairman of the Legislature, said he didn't understand why the museum decided to increase its hours. Gary Duckett, superintendent of the county's Parks and Trails, said the idea was to increase tourism in the county and have the facility open on Mondays, when typically many things are closed. But, he agreed, the plan hadn't been well thought out as to how many more people the museum expected to bring in and what any increased utility costs might be.
"You simply have to have a plan if you want to spend money," Batman said. "What are we doing with this? I can't support the additional expenditure."
Legislators decided to leave the increase in the budget for now while Duckett prepares some preliminary projections for the increased number of visitors.Ìý
Also examined was a $25,000 budgeted item toward the Cayuga County Public Utility Service Agency, which Sinclair admitted she had overlooked and carried over from last year's budget. Legislators will decide whether to leave that money there if the agency can decide what to use it for, or it could be put in contingency.
Another concern that was touched upon at the meeting was the county's reliance on revenue from the county jail. Expecting about $250,000 from the boarding of federal inmates and inmates from other governments, Sheriff David Gould had said he was concerned with that number due to the construction of other county jails. Legislators left that revenue line alone, but considered reducing it at another date.
The changes made to the budget will have to pass through November's full Legislature meeting on the 22nd before they become final.
Staff writer Gwendolyn Craig can be reached at (315) 282-2237 or gwendolyn.craig@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter @gwendolynnn1.