11/30/07 - $114M county budget approved

(As Published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

The county’s $114 million 2008 budget was approved Thursday night at a regular Legislature meeting. The budget 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.

The budget calls for $2.7 million in new spending for 2008, while the overall $114 million budget 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 by $111,000, or 0.5 percent, to $24.7 million.

The Legislature added a last minute amendment to the budget, voting unanimously to transfer $10,000 that had been budgeted for the county contingency fund to the Lime Hollow Center for Environment and Culture.

Legislator Kay Breed (R-Cortlandville) had proposed the change early on in the budget process, but the request was apparently lost in the shuffle.

The recommended contingency fund balance was $500,000, as was originally budgeted.

The county also passed an increase in the senior citizen tax exemption, increasing the base exemption income limit from $10,500 to $16,500 with an upper income limit of $22,199.99.
Residents over 65 years old who make $16,500 or less are exempt from 50 percent of the potential county property taxes. The exemption percentages reduce gradually, so that a senior making between $21,300 and $22,199.99 — the upper income limit — would be exempt from 20 percent of the potential property taxes.