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County Administrator Suzanne Sinclair had mixed feelings about the numbers in the official budget proposal. She said it was up to legislators whether more cuts or new revenue options should be included in the coming months. A special Legislature Ways and Means Committee meeting on Nov. 2 has been scheduled to review it.

"There's always more that you can do, but you just reach the deadline at some point," Sinclair said of the document, which was released Oct. 20. "I feel good that we're not drawing as much on the fund balance. The more we can preserve, the better off we are. It does provide for about the same amount of roadwork as last year, and it allows the highway department to replace some of their oldest equipment."

The county is projected to spend about $143,046,934 in 2017, with a draw on the fund balance, effectively the county's savings account, of about $683,560. That's better than 2016's budget, which drew about $1.7 million from the fund balance. The draft provides a 0.71 percent increase on the tax levy, which is below the state tax increase cap. The county is expected to generate an additional $247,000 from property taxes, bringing in a total of $38,907,491 through that revenue stream. 

Legislature Chairman Keith Batman said unless something catastrophic happened, the final budget will stay within the tax cap. He's also pleased at the much lower draw on the fund balance, though he hopes to get that number down to about $500,000.

"It is a budget that needs tweaking as opposed to a budget that needs major overall, so I think that's very encouraging," he said. 

While the fund balance is always changing, Sinclair said preliminary estimates show that it will be about $18.5 million by the end of the year. That's based on 2016's estimated draw on the fund balance of approximately $1.7 million. Sinclair said by year's end, the county may have spent less than that, meaning the fund balance could end up being a bit larger.

While the budget is looking to be in good shape, Sinclair cautioned that some of the revenue comes from one-shot sources, such as the closing of the county's nursing home. Sales tax revenue has also been down, and state mandates — including an increased number of people eligible for a public defender — may hurt the county's wallet. The county is still waiting to hear if the state will cover all indigent defense costs, which if Gov. Andrew Cuomo were to sign into law, would reimburse the county more than $800,000. 

"I think in the next couple of years (the county Legislature is) going to have to consider (going over the state tax cap), or as I said, look at new sources of revenue," Sinclair said. "The county, any county, risks financial difficulties if they allow their revenues to fall too far behind their expenses."

Batman, however, said he feels the body is going in the right direction, and there's still some time for tweaking. The final budget is not due until Dec. 20. Next year he hopes the Legislature will examine how the county's departments are organized, and look for ways to be more efficient while still providing basic services.

"I'm very hopeful," he said, "because we never really looked very closely at that, which generally means you have opportunities. That does not mean having people work harder or smarter or all those cliches. What it means is physically we're organizing ourselves and how we are structured so we can do things a little more differently and more effectively and more efficiently.