Clinton Co. proposed budget lowers tax rate, levy
Dec. 5—PLATTSBURGH — Clinton County's 2024 tentative budget is all about maintaining financial stability, county administrator and budget officer Michael Zurlo says.
"This was a very good budget," Zurlo told the Press-Republican.
"The goal of this legislature is stability: stable levy, stable rates."
The county has so far met that goal with this spending plan. Zurlo boasted that for the third year in a row, the county was able to reduce the tax levy in the budget.
For 2024, the tax levy is expected to decrease by $48,558 for a total of $29,662,193.
Likewise, the county lowered the tax rate to $4.28 per $1,000 of assessed value. That is $0.62 lower than 2023.
"It's the lowest it has been in recent history," Zurlo said.
This can be attributed to property assessments "going way up."
"The goal is to reduce the tax rate such that they can offset any increase in assessments or get close to (offsetting) ... What we try to do is avoid the double whammy."
If a property owner did not see an increase in their assessment, they will get the full benefit of the decreased tax rate and levy in 2024.
TAX CAP
The county's tentative budget is also under the state mandated tax cap by almost $1 million. This is largely due to increased sales tax projections, Zurlo said.
"We increased sales tax (projections) another 7% in this budget, which yields the county about an additional $3.1 million," he said.
The proposed budget also includes a "reasonable" contribution of $542,224 from the unreserved fund balance to offset these higher than initially estimated health insurance and retirement rates.
"Costs go up: retirement, salaries, insurance — health insurance is through the roof this year — we're trying to find ways to keep it stable," Zurlo said.
"We understand that we have a fiduciary obligation to our citizens. We touch everybody's life here."
NO MAJOR CUTS
The recommended budget is expected to include $198.5 million in total appropriations.
Zurlo said there were "no major cuts" in the spending plan. Instead, there are five additional FTEs (full-time equivalency) positions accounted for in the tentative budget.
"Only three of which affect the tax levy, the others are covered by grants or state funding. So really, two that affect the tax levy, but five new ones in the budget."
CHALLENGES
Putting together this year's budget was not without its challenges.
For example, the county had to account for increased mandated Medicaid expenses in 2024 due to the phase out of the COVID eFMAP enhancement and the state's intercept of the Affordable Care Act eFMAP enhancement; the benefit of which was intended to accrue to county governments and not the state.
The magnitude of this cost shift effectively transfers the burden from the state to county taxpayers, Zurlo said, which is now over $1.2 million higher than it was in 2023.
Additionally, changes to the state's foreclosure process in 2023 will keep the county from receiving the usual revenue from the annual auction moving forward. Currently, all of the foreclosure auction funds that were generated in 2023 are being held in escrow until the state gives direction on how to distribute them appropriately.
Zurlo said the county usually receives around $300,000 in revenue from the auction each year. Because of the changes to the foreclosure process, there's now $0 in foreclosure revenue projected in the 2024 budget, but Zurlo said this did not have a large impact.
"It's just less revenue that we had," he said.
"If the goal was just to end up where we ended up, ... assuming the sales tax is the same, you could have given departments an additional $300,000 somewhere (if we continued to receive the foreclosure funds). If there was a decision that I was recommending, that was on the cusp, maybe that would have instead been a yes. But it didn't change anything critical ... it's just always nice to have outside revenue sources."
PUBLIC HEARING
A public hearing on the tentative budget is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 5:15 p.m.
Any budget amendments can occur up until the time of the final adoption, which is scheduled for the Dec. 13 regular session meeting at 5:15 p.m.
Email: cnewton@pressrepublican.com
Twitter: CarlySNewton
