By Tom Grace
COOPERSTOWN _ Despite warnings by Administration Committee Chairman James Johnson, R-Otsego, the Otsego County Board of Representatives did not amend its $115,316,393 budget for 2010.
That budget, adopted Dec. 2, will increase the county tax levy by 7.2 percent and will leave the county's reserve funds at about $6 million, a level Johnson called ``dangerously low.''
``Simply put, the 2010 budget, as it currently stands, is reckless,'' Johnson told his peers.
Johnson asked his peers to reconsider the budget. Under board rules, only someone among the nine members who voted for the budget two weeks ago could bring the measure to the floor.
No one did.
Before the Dec. 2 meeting, the Administration Committee and county Treasurer and Budget Officer Myrna Thayne had worked on a tentative budget that estimated sales-tax revenue for next year at $29.5 million.
At the Dec. 2 meeting, the board raised that estimate to $30 million _ about what the county is on course to collect this year. The board also opted to put $500,000 from a tobacco-settlement account, which is part of the county's reserves, into the budget to permit spending on public safety and other programs.
Johnson took the board to task for these and other measures, saying ``some of the most egregious actions the board took Dec. 2 were reinstating over $1 million in previously removed spending; depleting an already dangerously low fund balance by another $500,000 to subsidize excessive spending (and) adding expenditures with the justification that the state will reimburse us when we know those reimbursements cannot be counted on.''
Perhaps the board's biggest mistake, he said, was passing on a 7 percent property-tax increase to `` taxpayers who are clearly suffering, as evidenced by a 21 percent increase in property tax delinquencies.''
Rep Kathy Clark, R-Otego, who voted against the budget, said that with state reimbursement in doubt and county reserve funds low, ``I think we're setting ourselves up for disaster next year.''
Board Chairman James Powers, R-Butternuts, and Rep. Scott Harrington, R-Oneonta, noted that the board can adjust the budget as 2010 unfolds. Just because an item is in the budget does not mean it has be approved, and the money spent, Powers said.
Harrington, who lost his seat to Democrat Linda Rowinski in the November election, advised his peers to delay large purchases and spend frugally.
Rep. Richard Murphy, D-Oneonta, chairman of the county's Intra-employee Relations Committee, said his committee has begun to discuss voluntary furloughs and other ways to reduce the county's labor costs in the coming year.
``I think that's a way we can address some of the problems with this budget,'' he said.
The board then voted on resolutions, including one to levy property taxes to pay for the 2010 budget. Voting against the levy were Johnson, Clark and Rep. Betty Anne Schwerd, R-Burlington.
A related resolution to approve tax rolls and direct the issuing of warrants was also approved by a weighted vote of 4,733 to 1,434, with the same three representatives voting no.
