Clinton County tax levy up slightly

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October 31, 2009

By JOE LoTEMPLIO The Press Republican Sat Oct 31, 2009, 11:28 PM EDT

PLATTSBURGH — Despite a sluggish economy and a state strapped with large deficits, the proposed 2010 budget for Clinton County remains fairly stable.

The proposed tax levy is $26,804,257, which is tentatively up 2.6 percent, but County Administrator Michael Zurlo, who serves as the budget officer, said that increase could drop.

The county could wind up saving more money, depending on how the open-enrollment period for county employees to choose a health-insurance option shakes out.

Zurlo said premiums for the county's health-insurance plans did not go up as much as expected.

"I'm expecting the tax-levy increase to go down, and it could wind up close to what it was (this) year."

The tax levy increased by .7 percent for the 2009 budget.

The levy is the difference between the government's total expenses and total revenue, the remainder having to be raised by property taxes.

The tax rate fluctuates with assessments, so it is the tax levy that is the better determinant of individual tax bills.

The tax rate is projected to go down for 2010 from $6 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $5.98.

Zurlo said this will mark the first time the county has seen a tax rate below $6 since 2001.

Also, the tax levy will be below the 2007 levy amount of $27,386,552 for the third straight year.

Zurlo said personnel requests, equipment, contract-agency funding and operating budgets were all reduced in order to keep taxes down.

"There are no personnel or service cuts in this budget."

About $2 million was taken from the fund balance to help stabilize the budget, leaving a balance of about 10 percent of the $159 million budget, as recommended by the state.

Sales-tax revenue, which has been a boon to the county the past decade, has slowed down. The county will budget the same amount for that for 2010 ($47.2 million) that it did for 2009, as recommended by the County Treasurer's Office.

"The sluggish economy suggests the sales tax is not going to be what it has been," Zurlo said.

The biggest costs the county are facing are for health insurance, salary increases and associated fringes and contributions to the State Retirement System.

Helping the budget is money from the federal stimulus package, which will go toward offsetting Medicaid costs.

Zurlo said putting together yearly budgets is becoming increasingly challenging, given the state's fiscal shape.

"As most of the role of county governments in the state is to act as agents of the state and carry out mandated services, when New York state hemorrhages, county governments bleed," Zurlo said.

County legislators will discuss the budget plan at this week's Finance Committee meeting. They have until Dec. 9 to approve a final spending package.

E-mail Joe LoTemplio at: jlotemplio@pressrepublican.com