At Monday night's meeting, the Otsego County Board of Representatives approved several insurance policies and authorized the collection of taxes to support the 2009 county budget.
That budget calls for appropriations of $111,596,317, a decrease of more than $4 million from the 2008 total of $115,696,041.
The tax levy for 2009 will be $10,393,089, an increase of 0.25 percent from this year's levy. The totals, which were part of the county's tentative budget, became official Saturday by state law.
Bills, combined with town tax levies, will go out soon.
On Dec. 3, the county board refused, for the second year in a row, to approve the annual spending plan. This year, some representatives such as Rep. Kathy Clark, R-Otego, said the board hadn't gone far enough to cut expenses, while other such as Rep. Marti Stayton, D-Oneonta, said the board had cut insurance reserves too deeply, leaving the county vulnerable to catastrophe.
There was little such talk Monday, according to James Powers, board chairman, and Greg Relic, who chairs the county's Administration Committee.
``It was quick and easy meeting, and everyone was in a good mood,'' Relic said.
Absent were Reps. Cathy Rothenberger, D-Oneonta; Keith McCarty, R-Springfield; Katherine Stuligross, D-Oneonta; Clark and Stayton, but most resolutions were supported by the nine members present, Relic said.
After much consideration, the board decided to approve an insurance package assembled by Mike Hutcherson of Cooperstown, vice president of SEFCU, a large credit union based in the Albany area.
Hutcherson was president of the Colonial Insurance Agency in Cooperstown, which was acquired by SEFCU in 2007 and for years has acted as the county's insurance agent.
Also considered was signing on with the New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal, Relic said.
``They've greatly reduced the cost of membership, but there were some terms in the agreement, liability for things beyond our control, that we were worried about,'' he said.
The package approved Monday night calls for the county, which is self-insured up to $100,000 per claim, to purchase general and excess liability coverage from the Argonaut Insurance Co. at a cost of $94,303. This policy is meant to cover claims totaling as much as $9 million.
Also from Argonaut, the county agreed to purchase law-enforcement liability insurance at a cost of $23,233.
The board approved purchasing public officials' liability coverage from U.S. Specialty Insurance at a cost of $55,000, and property and inland marine insurance from the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies at a cost of $87,395.
In other business, the board:
ä Agreed to hire Dr. Samuel Press to provide psychiatric services at the Community Services Clinic at a cost of $140 an hour.
ä Thanked Steve Child, Real Property Tax Office director, and Charlotte Koniuto, Republican elections commissioner, for years of service to the county. Child and Koniuto will retire at the end of the year.
