10/26/07 - County tax rate drops 4% in new draft budget

(As published by Cortland Standard, Corey Preston Reporting)

A healthy fund balance will allow Cortland County to cut property taxes by about 4 percent, according to the county administrator’s tentative $114 million budget for 2008.

County Administrator Scott Schrader presented the Legislature Thursday with a proposed 2008 budget that would reduce the average county tax rate of $14.91 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2007 to a 2008 rate of $14.31 per $1,000.

Schrader’s budget calls for $2.7 million in new spending for 2008, while the overall budget of $114 million represents a $6 million, or 5.2 percent, increase over the $108 million 2007 spending plan.

Despite the spending increases, the proposed budget reduces the overall tax levy, the amount of property taxes the county needs to collect for its budget, by $111,000, or 0.5 percent, to $24.7 million.

These cuts to the tax rate and the tax levy — the first substantial cuts since 1995, Schrader said — are possible due to the county’s relatively solid financial position, he said.

“The bottom line is we’re reducing our reliance on real property tax dollars to run our operations, which is a very good thing,” Schrader said. “We’re getting a good return on the fund balance we’ve built up, our bond rating is down which will lead to significant long term savings. It’s amazing what four and a half years have done.”

Schrader and numerous legislators credited one another and county department heads for improving the county’s financial situation significantly since 2003, when Schrader was hired.

In 2003, after a depleted fund balance contributed to a poor bond rating which led to significant tax increases, the Legislature resolved to grow and maintain the county’s fund balance at 10 percent of total expenditures.

Schrader’s budget proposes spending $3.9 million, or 38 percent, of the county’s roughly _$10.2 million general fund balance.

Including surplus funds earmarked for specific uses such as county roads, the county will spend about $4.7 million of its total $12.8 million budgeted fund balance for 2008, leaving it with an $8.1 million total fund balance heading in to 2009, assuming no money is unspent in 2008.

That figure is just under 10 percent of the $90 million in total expenditures in the budget Schrader said, noting that the $114 million figure comes from certain expenditures that come from the county’s general fund but go toward funds like highway and health insurance, and are counted twice.

My congratulations to the County Administration and Legislature for their efforts to keep our taxes down for the next year.

Let's keep it rolling!