(Photo Source: Kevin L. Smith/The Cortland Voice).
Cortland County’s 2022 proposed budget of $142 million would increase county spending, as well as the amount of money in property taxes levied by approximately 2.3 percent.
The total expenditures proposed in the 2022 county budget amount to $142,042,348.23, according to County Administrator Rob Corpora. It signifies an increase of approximately 3.3 percent from this year’s adopted spending plan of $137,449,888.29.
Under this proposed 2022 budget, the county would also collect $37.8 million in property taxes. It is an increase of approximately 2.3 percent from the $37.5 million in taxes levied by the county in 2021.
Corpora said the average county tax rate would go up by 20 cents (or an approximate 1.3 percent) from $15.65 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2021 to $15.85 per $1,000 of assessed property value in the proposed 2022 budget.
Corpora said the county will not dip into its general fund to offset shortfalls. The county’s adopted budget for this year used $855,375.81 from the fund balance line in order to bridge the gap between revenues and expenditures.
“This has not been accomplished in many years,” he added.
Sales tax and taxes collected on electronic commerce have been strong this year, according to Corpora. He mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic has made for a different commercial landscape.
“We are currently about 16 percent over the 2019 sales tax for the same period, which was the last year unaffected by COVID-19,” Corpora added. “The collection of internet sales tax has been a large boost since it started in 2020.”
Corpora noted there is a chance the county could receive even more in sales tax, but there is enough uncertainty around sales tax to make a projection.
“If we keep going on with the 16 percent increase in sales tax from 2019, which is the last unaffected year by COVID, we could end up receiving $36 million in revenue,” he said. “I only budgeted $33.5 million. Sales tax is funny in that internet sales tax collection started in June of 2020. We really don’t know what it is gonna do and what it is gonna take away from other sources like brick and mortar.”
Cortland County has also experienced issues with its labor force, which is something Corpora would like to see addressed. While the issue is unlikely to be solved in the short term, Corpora included half a million dollars in funds to perform a salary analysis of employees who are under the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) bargaining unit.
“I am requesting an outside firm to perform a salary analysis of our CSEA employees to help expedite the process,” he said. “It is my number one priority that by the end of January 2022 to have a plan in place to resolve this long-standing salary issue.”
Corpora said employee retention is also an issue for county departments.
“Many departments are struggling to retain current employees and it is almost impossible to recruit new employees in part due the wage differences Cortland County pays in comparison with neighboring counties and the private sector,” he said, adding that many localities across the country face similar issues. “Our employees are our most important asset and it is worth doing everything we can to keep them. Many of our employees have worked long and hard through the pandemic, natural disasters like floods and blizzards and worst of all, uncertainty of what is coming next. We owe it to them to provide a competitive wage for work well done.”
Corpora said different departments requested the creation of new positions in order to shore up labor shortages and provide relief to existing employees. Corpora noted there were at least 25 new positions requested. He added six of them will offset deleted positions.
Legislature Chairman Paul Heider (R-LD 16) asked Corpora if the staffing issues could be addressed by continuing surges in revenue.
“One of the biggest fires in our county is employee salaries,” Heider said. “If we see next year that sales tax is continuing in that upward climb, could we possibly use some of that money to increase to attack our salary problem more aggressively?”
Corpora said it would be possible to do so as long as the money to increase salaries comes from a steadily increasing source.
“Yes, as long as the raises come from ongoing revenues,” he said, adding that a source like one-time federal funds allocated to the county would not work. “It’s like using your credit card to pay your car payment. It doesn’t work in the long term.”
The county will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget on Oct. 26.
