Mandates loom over Warren County's future

WARREN COUNTY – Over the past couple of years since COVID-19, burdensome New York State and federal mandates have put a squeeze on Warren County’s inflating budget; however, in 2026, those mandated increases in Medicaid, health insurance and NYS pension contributions will add nearly $3 million in spending — a concern for county officials thinking about the future.

“The challenges we have in Warren County going forward are the same challenges you all face in business. Our costs have gone up. Unfunded mandates from the state have really added cost. There’s four or five things that have driven up our costs, whether it be health insurance premiums, retirement costs,” said Kevin Geraghty, chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors.

Mandates are federal- or state-created programs for services that are required to be provided by local governments. In New York State, most of these mandates are not accompanied by state and/or federal money to pay for them or are only partially paid for by federal or state funds, county officials say.

“The issue for us is that only about 20% of our budget is discretionary. The rest of that is mandated, either by federal mandates or state mandates,” said Warren County Administrator John Taflan at a State of the County panel last week.

Due to such a low percentage dedicated to discretionary spending, Warren County operates within a small margin when it comes to spending. County government has little to no control over state and federally mandated costs, but must provide services that are mandated and additional services through their County departments and agencies, county officials say.

“That pretty much ties our hands. If you look at a $215 million budget, only about 20% of that you can really impact at any budget year. That’s what puts the biggest challenge on us. We talk a lot about fund balance. Our fund balance is healthy,” Taflan explained. “The recommendation is that we have enough [in the fund balance] to pay for two months worth of expenditures. We’ve historically had that over the past three years, so we have a good fund balance. We have a very low debt ratio. We don’t have a lot of debt out there, so that’s another good thing. We have things to fall back on.”

In Warren County’s 2025 budget, approximately $43.8 million of the total $207.1 million was budgeted for 10 of the most expensive mandated programs. Two of the most significant mandates that the county must budget for include Medicaid; New York is one of the few states that mandate county governments to pay a portion of the state’s cost, the other is a welfare mandate where the state has established an extensive system of welfare benefits to assist needy individuals and families.

Over 15% of the County’s total expenses are mandated without funding by the state or federal governments and 6.3% are mandated with funding, according to Warren County.

Programs like Public Assistance, Safety Net and Child Welfare that are designated under the Welfare umbrella cost Warren County approximately $3.5 million in 2025. Last year, Warren County’s Medicaid bill was approximately $12.2 million, as mandated by the State. Medicaid alone accounted for about 23% of the property tax levy, according to county officials.

Additional New York State mandates include Pre-School Special Ed, Early Intervention Services, Probation, Indigent Defense, Youth Detention, Criminal Competency Restoration and the Public Pension System. In 2025, those mandates cost the County approximately $15 million, according to Warren County’s budget.

For 2026, health insurance costs will increase by $878,000 to $11.7 million, while retirement costs will increase by $1.15 million to $10.3 million, while the Medicaid share from the state has increased by $843,000, according to Warren County Budget Officer Frank Thomas.

Part of the mandated Criminal Competency Restoration program includes 730 competency exams for defendants, where the county must foot the bill.

“We budgeted up to $800,000, which is an additional $200,000, for the 730 competency exams for people that have been accused of a crime and may not be mentally competent, they go to a facility and they’re examined, analyzed, and they try to restore them so they can stand trial,” Thomas explained.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the 2026 budget at their November 21 meeting. The budget adjusts to increases in mandated costs but continues to maintain one of the lowest property tax rates in New York State while investing in public safety and infrastructure, as previously reported.

“The $215.7 million 2026 budget adapted to increased costs for state-mandated services, retirement costs, Medicaid and inflation-related expenditures, pushing it over the NY State tax levy cap of 2.65%. Projected revenue increases and efforts by county agencies to reduce spending will help offset some of the increases,” county officials stated in a press release.

“Putting together a budget for 2026 was challenging as we continue to confront increased costs across the board, including large increases for health insurance, NY State pension contributions, computer software and more, along with projected reductions in state funding and reimbursement for state mandates,” Thomas said in a statement.

“Thanks to exemplary work from our staff, we are able to invest in public safety and infrastructure improvements while holding the property tax rate down for property owners during these difficult times,” Thomas continued.

For Taflan and Thomas, the concerning trend will be that costs continue to rise, mandates further squeeze the budget, and future federal cuts put an undue burden on Warren County taxpayers.

“The biggest issue going forward is the unknowns of the impact of federal cuts. We know there are going to be federal cuts to Medicaid. We know there are going to be federal cuts in other areas, in funds that we rely on, and we just have to anticipate those,” Taflan said. “Most of [the cuts] are going to happen in 2027 so we’ll probably be okay for 2026, but I think as the year goes on we’re going to find out what our 2027 challenges are going to be and we’ll have to work through those.”

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