“2014 CHEMUNG COUNTY BUDGET ONCE AGAIN CALLS FOR NO TAX RATE INCREASE” Thursday, November 07, 2013
Elmira – Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli unveiled his proposed 2014 Budget today which will hold the line on the County property tax rate for the ninth straight year.
Santulli’s 2014 Budget proposal recommends a General Fund Tax Levy of $28,540,320, an increase of 3.9% over the 2013 tax levy of $27,477,202. Further, this Budget proposal recommends total net appropriations of $173,066,268 for the fiscal year that commences on January 1, 2014. This represents a decrease of $2,626,904 or 1.5% from the $175,693,172 approved by the Legislature for the current fiscal year. The Budget is now subject to review and approval by the County Legislature.
“I am pleased to be able to present to the Legislature a budget that maintains the County’s tax rate of $6.98 per thousand of assessed valuation,” said Santulli. “This budget continues to hold the line on spending on all of the programs that are under our control and not impacted by the mandates of the State of New York,” added Santulli.
“However, because of these New York State mandates, I must recommend to the Legislature in this spending plan that approximately $4.3 million of our reserve be appropriated to balance the 2014 spending plan. It troubles me to again recommend the use of our financial reserve, but I believe that a property tax increase, considering all the community has been through over the last 18 months would not be in the best interest of our County taxpayers. Property taxes in New York State and in this County are entirely too high and an increase would only create more stress on our taxpayers, “added Santulli.
Santulli went on to say, “I believe that our County has always been out front in dealing with financial issues when there is a downturn in the economy and this year is no exception. With the full knowledge that tough times lie ahead; my office developed the Chemung County Financial Restructuring Plan. This document reviewed every aspect of the County’s current fiscal condition and painstakingly created a series of actions that would help alleviate a good portion of the fiscal distress that is before us. The plan was designed to build off of prior actions that we developed to maximize our revenues and reduce our expenses. Examples of these operational modifications include changes to our health insurance plan, consolidation of departments, reductions in the workforce, privatization of the management of our landfill, and numerous programmatic changes in our human services programs to maximize revenues and reduce local share costs.”
The County Legislature has scheduled workshop sessions to review the proposed 2014 Budget on November 12th following the regular meeting which begins at 7:00 PM and on November 13th at 7:00 PM in the 5th floor Legislative Chambers of the Hazlett Building. The public is welcome at these sessions, as well as at the formal Public Hearing to be held on the Budget at 7:00 PM on November 18th. There will be a special meeting of the Legislature on November 25th following the Committee Meetings at 7:30 to adopt the 2014 Budget.
*NOTE: The “full value tax rate” is the average of the rates of the city of Elmira and the eleven towns within Chemung County. Final rates are contingent upon action by the Legislature in amending the proposed budget, state equalization rates, special district charges, etc.