Picente presents 2024 Oneida County budget, slams state for fiscal irresponsibility
Oneida County property taxes will not go up in 2024 for the eleventh straight year, but the county will have $11 million more to spend in sales tax revenues under a proposed budget presented Thursday by county Executive Anthony Picente Jr.
“Eleven zeroes in a row,” he said during his budget address to the county Board of Legislators in the county office building in Utica. “That's unparalleled in county history. If Albany and Washington would spend less time talking at us and more time listening to us, they might learn something about government.
“If you remain fiscally conservative and apply common sense in your day-to-day operations, you can do more with less taxpayer money and attack problems head on.”
Picente’s speech alternated between praising himself, the legislature, county employees and the county’s partners, particularly the Oneida Indian Nation, for how well run and fiscally responsible the county remains and lambasting federal and, particularly, state leaders, blaming them for their fiscal irresponsibility and unwillingness to tackle big problems.
“You don’t have to raise taxes, tolls and fees,” Picente said, “while constantly pushing off your responsibilities with reckless abandon like they do every day.”
The proposed $529 million budget, $36 million higher than last year, marks the first time the budget has surpassed the half-a-billion-dollars mark, Picente noted. And the state plays a huge role in dictating how big the budget must be, he said.
“Ninety percent of this budget is state mandated, same as last year,” Picente said. “Ten percent is discretionary, same as last year.”
But much of that “discretionary” portion doesn’t feel very discretionary, Picente noted, covering things like road patrols by the sheriff’s office, meals for seniors and the 911 call center.
He credited the increase in sales tax revenue to an increase in visitors to the county, through tourism and the success of projects such as Wolfspeed and the Nexus Center, which will host the largest women’s hockey event in the world next April, bringing in 10 teams from around the world for 12 days and “cementing us as a world-wide destination for sports tourism.”
And all those visitors boost local businesses and pay sales tax, he said.
“When someone says, ‘Cut the sales tax, what they are really saying is raise the property tax,” Picente said, “because you can’t have it both ways.”
Property taxes are only paid by local property owners, including families, seniors, business owners and farmers, he noted. But sales tax is paid by everyone, including tourists and visitors, Picente said.
“Holding the line,” he noted, “doesn’t mean standing still. We have made significant investments that have significantly changed the face of this county.”
Here are other key points in the proposed 2024 budget highlighted by Picente:
Much of the $36 million budget increase comes from rising salaries, rising utility costs and other expense increases that plague all large organizations, Picente said.
Revenue streams that make up the county budget include: Sales tax, 26.9%; state aid, 19.7%; department income, etc., 18.6%; property taxes, 12.5%; all other sources, 12%; and federal aid, 10.2%.
The largest share of the county budget —42.4% — goes to human services. The rest goes to public safety, 15.1%; public works, 13.3%; general government, 12.6%; other, 8.24%; education, 5.6%; and economic development, etc., 2.8%.
The 2024 budget proposes retiring $19.3 million in debt.
It includes a capital budget of $15 million, down from the $34.7 million initially recommended by the capital review team.
The county will still spend $8 million on roads and bridges, but as pay-as-you-go funds in the 2023 budget using reserves, not through the capital budget.
The county will invest in several large projects: $6.5 million to expand the footprint of the Cornell Cooperative Extension facility; $2 million toward the Railway Express Agency wing of Union Station in Utica (where Picente envisions a food emporium someday); $2 million to move the county health clinic into the county office building; and $1 million for technology upgrades for the county government.
The county is at 18% of its debt limit.
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli recently informed Picente that “Oneida County is under no fiscal distress,” Picente said.
The budget builds on, Picente said, what has always been his goal: “a better Oneida County today than the day before.”
“Let’s continue,” he said, “to move this county forward together.”
The county legislators will vote on the budget on Nov. 8.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Picente proposes 2024 Oneida County budget without tax increase
