MAYVILLE — After a week’s worth of analysis, legislators have made a number of changes to the proposed county 2024 budget, but are still keeping the same tax levy and tax rate proposed by County Executive PJ Wendel.

Wendel has proposed a $294.1 million budget, with a property tax rate of $6.91 per $1,000 assessed valuation. That is 89 cents lower than the current year’s rate of $7.80.

But even with the lower rate, the spending plan has a tax levy of $71,528,027, up from this year’s levy of $69,681,835. The levy is the amount collected by taxes.

Wendel presented his budget Sept. 27. Last week all six legislature committees reviewed the proposed budget, making changes where they felt was necessary. The Audit and Control Committee finalized those changes and will be presenting them back to the full legislature for further review and potential budget adoption by the end of the month.

BUDGET INCREASES

There were a number of areas legislators decided to increase spending. During a phone interview, Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon, R-Ellery, detailed the changes.

Medicaid expense is increasing another $644,000, a 13.3% increase from the 2023 budget, for a total of $3.7 million increase. He said the county heard from Medicaid after Wendel presented his budget, noting the increased costs.

The county’s Human Services Department requested the safety net costs be increased another $750,000. “They felt that the safety net trends are indicating that there should be a more substantial increase,” Chagnon said.

The Mental Hygiene Law, which is court-ordered psychiatric evaluations, is increasing by $250,000. “The Mental Hygiene Department saw that those are continuing to increase and the efforts to work with the courts to try and find alternatives have not yet been producing fruit,” Chagnon said.

New York State Retirement costs are going up an additional $975,000. Chagnon said those numbers were not available when Wendel presented his budget last month.

BUDGET DECREASES

The legislature was able to reduce road salt by $543,000. Chagnon said a new lower bid came in after Wendel presented his budget, which was quite a bit lower than what the county executive had expected. “A new supplier has come into the market and their bid came in 28% lower than the estimate,” Chagnon said. It will also mean the legislature will lose about $65,000 when it sells the road salt to towns.

The legislature reduced the $1 million Wendel proposed for lake maintenance to $500,000. Part of the reason for the reduction was to balance the budget and part of it was because it’s a brand new initiative. “The feeling of the committees was that we really wanted to wait and see how that goes,” he said.

Chagnon noted that if they wanted to keep the $1 million in the lake maintenance fund they would need to pull $500,000 out of fund balance, something they can do in the future if necessary.

Wendel had budgeted $1 million for heavy equipment for the Department of Public Facilities. The money was going to come out of fund balance. Chagnon said they are going to bond that money instead. Part of the reason is because the county’s Finance Department is having a lot of success investing the county’s cash balances.

INCREASED REVENUE

Wendel’s budget did not include any revenue from interest from bank accounts. The legislature is predicting the county will get $250,000 in 2024 from interest revenue.

With increasing the county’s share to is Safety Net program, Chagnon said the county will get an additional $218,000 of state aid.

The legislature is planning to receive another $350,000 in ambulance transports. Chagnon said the county’s Emergency Services has just launched the new ambulance for hospital transports, where they have been primarily assisting Westfield Memorial Hospital. Wendel has budgeted for one transport a day. The legislature increased that two transports a day. “The program has only been in place for a couple of weeks, but they’re seeing a great demand for the services. Now Brooks Hospital in Dunkirk is wanting to utilize the services,” he said.

The county’s CARTS program, now called CHQ Transport, has seen an increase in ridership. Because of this Chagnon said they’re budgeting for an additional increase of revenue of $125,000. The increase, he said, is primarily due to transport services that have left the market and CARTS has been able to transport those individuals, many times on their existing routes.

The legislature is also planning on using $800,000 worth of interest earnings generated in 2023 from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act for the 2024 budget. When the federal government provided Chautauqua County $24.6 million for COVID-19 relief funds, the county was told the money couldn’t be used to lower taxes or pay down debt. It was instead meant to be used for new projects to help stimulate the economy. However the county was permitted to invest the money until it was spent. Chagnon said the money that was generated in investments in 2022 was used in the 2023 budget; now the county will use the investments made 2023 for its 2024 budget.

STAFFING LEVELS

Chagnon said in 2024, the county’s staffing level will be up two full-time positions. “The departments have been very judicious in looking for opportunities to reduce costs,” he said.

Some county positions are paid for by county tax dollars, while others are paid for by other agencies. For example, the Panama Central School District recently contracted with the county to hire a school resource officer. The county’s staffing level is increased by this hire, but Panama will pay for the entire cost of the position.

In the county Health Department, Chagnon noted that they are adding a coroner supervisor, but they were able to eliminate a public nurse, so in terms of employment, the new supervisor did not increase the number of staff in the department.

According to Chagnon, the net increase in salaries will be 5.25%. “In my mind, that’s a terrific accomplishment to hold it to that level,” he said.

FUND BALANCE

Four Democratic legislators sent out a news release after Wendel proposed his budget, calling for $1 million in the reserve funds be spent to lower taxes. After their proposal was announced, Legislator Elisabeth Rankin, R-Jamestown responded with a letter to the editor, where she wrote that the legislature’s own financial policy recommends the county have between 5% and 15% in reserves. “Spending too much of the fund balance now likely means higher taxes in the not-to-distant future. I stand for prudent, conservative budgeting that protects the taxpayers and the services provided by the county,” she wrote.

Chagnon further commented on the topic. “The county’s unobligated fund balance increased in the last couple of years because the sales tax revenue was increasing faster than we were anticipating in the budget,” he said.

The sales tax rates were higher in 2022 and 2023. For 2024, the county is budgeting an additional $3.3 million.

In 2023, the county is using $4.6 million from its fund balance. For the 2024 budget, the county is planning to use $6.1 million. “It’s not like we’re just sitting here watching the fund balance continue to grow and not utilizing the funds,” he said.

Chagnon said they’re predicting the fund balance to be 13.3% at the end of 2023 and 13.6% at the end of 2023.

He does not want to see the county lower its reserves too much. “We’re utilizing that fund balance, but that rate of utilization of the fund balance is not sustainable because we certainly don’t expect sales tax revenue to far exceed our projections for next year and the year beyond,” he said.

He expressed concerns about inflation, as well as the state and its impact on the county’s budget. “It’s just not sustainable to think we can take over $4 million out of fund balance every year,” he said.

Chagnon said a healthy fund balance helps ensure cash flow for daily needs. “You need to have cash because the tax receipts don’t all come in immediately and you have to have cash to pay your bills,” he said.

He said the fund balance can also help protect against unforeseen expenses from emergencies, revenue shortfalls, and protects the county’s bond rating.

DIETHRICK PARK

Chagnon said the multi-use field proposed by Jamestown Community College at Diethrick Park is not reflected in the 2024 budget. In August, the County Planning Board gave its support to create a multi-purpose soccer, baseball and softball field at Diethrick Park in Jamestown, which would cost around $30 million. The county would have been responsible for 25%, or $7.5 million.

Chagnon said because there is questions on ownership of the facility and what role the city of Jamestown would have, the county is not yet ready to make any commitments to the project.

Last year, Wendel proposing spending $941,000 on a new soccer field. The legislature rejected that request and added they were more interested in creating a multi-use field at JCC.