Tom Carle

A Chautauqua County legislator who is running for county executive believes more fund balance should be spent to keep the levy flat and reduce taxes further.

Tom Carle, D-Fredonia, sent an email to The Post-Journal and OBSERVER where he discussed his campaign and differences he sees between himself and incumbent PJ Wendel, a Republican, who has been in county government for a 14 years, serving in the executive branch for the last six.

“The executive knows that I am proposing the lowering of taxes, promoting shared services, investing/focusing more on our existing small businesses and bringing the lake associations together, so it was interesting to hear his budget speech. Seems that he is hearing what is being talked about in the county and what I am saying and reacting to it, which is good, though he made similar promises/plans in 2021 that have not come to fruition,” Carle said in the email.

Wendel has proposed a $309.7 million budget with a property tax rate of $6.17 per $1,000 assessed valuation. This is a reduction of 54 cents from the 2024 tax rate.

The levy, the amount raised by taxes, is proposed to go up 2%.

“If it were me at the helm in these financially challenging times, I would keep the tax levy where it is using $1.7 million to $2 million of the fund balance and combine it with the rate decrease, providing a real tax reduction. Reducing the tax levy also has a relief factor for the years that follow. Then, I would get busy reducing costs by a half percent to keep the tax levy the same for next year or reimburse the fund – and I have to believe that we can reduce by more than 0.5%,” he wrote.

In Wendel’s original budget he proposed using 1% of the county’s reserves, keeping $35.46 million in the unobligated fund balance, the same as in 2025. During budget reviews, legislators have proposed using an additional $176,000.

The county’s financial management plan calls for its reserves to be between 5 and 15%. Wendel’s proposed budget would have the unobligated fund balance to be 11.5%.

Carle has also criticized Wendel and the Republican majority in the legislature for keeping the sales tax rate at 8%. “Five of us voted to reduce the sales tax by 0.25% in 2025 and attempted to distribute at an increased percentage to the municipalities. The majority would not hear of either move. I believe that we need to take the small step and demonstrate that we can challenge taxation levels or we will never break the cycle of tax and spend,” he said.

Chautauqua County’s sales tax rate has been at 8% since 2016. Every two years the county legislature must request the state legislature permission to have it higher than 7%, which it finalized in September.

According to the state Department of Taxation and Finance, only six of the 62 counties in the state have a sales tax rate of lower than 8%, none of which are in Western New York.

Still, Carle believes Chautauqua County should have lowered its sales tax rate. “The proposed initial reduction of 0.25% represents a mere 245,000 of the $98 million projected in sales tax revenues, of which the county takes 59%, leaving the county just $145K short from budget projection. Seems like a small price to pay to break the cycle, and an easy target for a ‘culture of cost reduction’ which I would create in our county government,” he said.

In 2024, the county legislature approved increasing the base pay for county legislators from $9,000 to $14,732, effective Jan. 1, 2026. It will be the first pay increase in 25 years.

“If we walked back just one line item, the legislative majority’s 2026 raise in pay of 66%, we could save $114,000 right there,” Carle wrote.

He continued, “Hopefully, voters will get the fact that with PJ, costs and taxes will continue to rise! With me at the helm, we would have a ‘better than zero chance’ of keeping some cash in their pockets for a few years, and possibly longer.”

The county legislature has completed its budget review and may vote on it for approval at its meeting Oct. 22.