County budget supports a small tax cut

Nov. 15--Taxpayers will likely see a slight decrease in their Niagara County tax bill next year.

The county's tentative budget is projecting a full value tax rate of $7.38 per $1,000 of assessed value. That's a 28 cent or 3.7 percent decrease from 2015. For property valued at $100,000, the tax bill would be reduced by $28.

The decrease is a result of several fixed or mandatory costs that dropped by more than $1 million each for 2016. Budget Director Daniel Huntington said the county's employee health insurance costs, Medicaid, pension fund contributions and worker's compensation all decreased.

County health insurance costs are down by $1.8 million from 2015, to $29.2 million. Huntington said because the county is self insured, with the rates set for 2015, expenses came in less than what premiums were set at. The resulting surplus gets applied to offsetting next year's premiums, so these are actually going down.

Also, Huntington said, with the Affordable Care Act covering additional cases, the county's Medicaid tab was lowered by $1.5 million, to $43.66 million.

The tentative $339.1 million Niagara County budget, released by Huntington and County Manager Jeffrey Glatz, shows a spending increase of $2.46 million, or 0.73 percent.

The tax levy for the general fund is $76,181,926, 1.77 percent higher than the 2015 levy. This amount falls within the so-called state tax cap. The county could have raised the tax levy by 2.06 percent, but ended up $102,350 below the cap.

Huntington said part of the reason the tax cap is more generous in 2016 is because last year the county was $843,000 below the cap. This full amount was able to be carried over into 2016.

For 2016, the county plans to use $7.2 million of unassigned fund balance, which utilizes $2.7 million less surplus than in 2015.

The county started 2015 with $30 million in fund balance, but has spent about $4 million since that time. This induced the county's purchase of three Lockport buildings, two of which it was leasing for offices. Glatz said this will save the county about $1 million a year in rentals.

The $26 million surplus that remains is better than the $24 million the county had heading into 2015.

For revenues, the county has budgeted a 1 percent increase in sales tax revenues.

"I don't know if that's conservative, it's what the projection is," Huntington said. "We're going to be above budget this year, a bit, but when we look at 2014 to 2015, it's flat."

He said the county gets sales tax reports from the state and sales tax is "down all over the state."

"It's good that we're flat, because some counties are down 3, 4 percent," Huntington said.

Reasons for this could be, he said, the fall of the Canadian dollar, which could keep people from coming here to shop. The lower price of gasoline is also a factor.

Other items in the budget include an increase of 14 employees over the start of 2015. Now at 1,348 positions, the county has added several jobs throughout the year, including four cleaners and one building attendant for the buildings that the county acquired mid-year. Also added were two sheriff deputy positions for additional security in the social services buildings.

New for 2016 will be the addition of three full-time sheriff dispatcher positions. These positions will be funded through the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services PSAP grant and utilized to meet increased call volume and radio-dispatch demands.

There will also be a vacant part-time position abolished to make room for a full-time forensic lab position, funded through a grant.

Huntington said the state also informed them they do not have enough supervisors for probation, so in July 2016 a supervisor's position will be created and a probation's officer position will be abolished.

Step increases for all union members have been added into the 2016 budget. These were restored by county legislators last year, after being frozen for four years. Huntington said this will cost the county $800,000. Non-union employees will receive a minimum 2 percent salary increase.

Glatz said $2.7 million has also been added into the budget to pay for raises if the county can settle their outstanding union contracts. Only the county's American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local has a current contract. The other five unions are under a contract that ran out at the end of 2011.

Glatz said he is "fairly optimistic" that an agreement can be reached and he plans to work toward finalizing the process starting in January.

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(c)2015 the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (Lockport, N.Y.)

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