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Cortland County Legislators approved a resolution Tuesday at the monthly Finance and Administration Committee meeting in regards to the 2024 county budget.
The green-lit recommendation encourages the county administrator and other budget officials to stay within a 2% increase to property taxes levied in the 2024 county budget.
The move, according to county administrator Rob Corpora, will have damaging consequences to county departments and services such as the highway department, law enforcement juvenile programs, and the County Department of Social Services.
Legislative Minority Leader Beau Harbin (D-LD-2) was the lone “no” vote on this measure.
Legislature Chair Kevin Fitch (R-LD-8) said the county is staring down an approximate $2.3 million budget deficit, which would signify an 8% increase in property taxes levied in the budget.
Majority Leader George Wagner (R-LD-15) put the motion forward to recommend the county administration to stick within a 2% increase.
“We need to let the public know what we’re striving to keep that 2% cap,” Wagner said. “It might not happen with the way (our) state has been treating us this year, and going to treat us next year.”
Harbin opposed the measure, noting the county needed to go through a process to assess economic conditions before imposing limits.
“This needs to be an outgrowth and a natural process,” he said. “We're establishing a hard and fast rule to say ‘thou shalt not’ before we even get into the process. We need to know where things are.”
Harbin noted things like the county’s budget shortfall and a loss of funds from the state government regarding Medicaid as reasons for concern.
“My worry is that if we tie (Corpora’s) hands with this directive right now, he will make cuts on social services or other services for this community without our direct input in order to meet a directive,” Harbin said.
Wagner responded, noting he expects cuts to services.
Corpora detailed what those cuts could mean.
“There could be major drops and unfortunately the places where no one wants to cut; law enforcement, highway, personnel. Those are our core services that we need to run the county,” Corpora said.
Harbin also asked to put a motion on the floor to move the county’s 2024 budget vote to Oct. 26.
Last year, the vote took place in late November. Harbin said he wanted the vote to precede the local elections this November, when several legislature seats will be contested. The motion failed along party lines.
“It is the best thing we can do for the trust of our taxpayers,” he said. “We need to tell them exactly where we stand before we go through another four year term.”
Corpora said the measure would be possible, but would require some additional meetings in and prior to October, as the legislature typically presents the budget, then hosts a public hearing, and later waits a month to officially vote to approve or reject that particular year’s spending plan.
“I can see if I can get it out there an extra week earlier, but it's a lot of work to finalize it,” Corpora said.
Fitch said he did not want to rush the process and that trying to get the budget before the election overpoliticizes the budgetary process.
“We’re here to do a job and to really try to help the county out itself,” he said. “But to focus so much on the constituents’ need to know before they vote, I just think we now just made this a political issue.”
Legislator Sandy Price (D-LD-14) said she would support Harbin’s measure with a caveat.
“I would like to say that this is a good objective,” Price said. “But I would hope that if we found that it wasn't reasonable, that we would be flexible with the administrators.”
