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County officials tonight outlined Administrator Steve Whicher's proposed 2008 Tompkins County budget at a Community Budget Forum sponsored by the County Legislature.

Close to 30 people attended the forum, held at Ithaca's Boynton Junior High School, some of them representatives of County departments and agencies. Eleven citizens addressed legislators, nearly all of them calling for funding to be preserved for programs that provide valuable services, including the Tompkins County Public Library, Offender Aid and Restoration and the Drop In Children's Center. Several young people served by the Bridges Program for Youth and Families, operated by the County Youth Services Department, told legislators about how the program's Aggression Replacement Training has made a difference in their lives. An over-target request for an additional staff position for the Bridges program was not included in the administrator's budget.

Investigator Rick Tubbs of the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office urged legislators to support the over-target request for an additional investigator's position, also not part of the proposed budget. Tubbs noted that there has been no increase in staffing in the investigation unit since he joined the department 12 years ago, while crime, particularly violent crime, has been increasing. Without adequate staff, he said, every complaint cannot be given the time that it deserves.

The $72 million tentative budget increases local spending by 1.2 percent and meets the Legislature's goal of no more than a 2 percent increase in the tax levy (the total amount of property tax revenue collected.) The tax rate (the amount of tax paid per thousand dollars assessed property value) would increase by only six-tenths of one percent from the current-year level; the $6.80 rate is four cents higher than in 2007, representing only a $4.23 tax increase for a $100,000 home.

Former long-time Dryden legislator Mike Lane suggested that the Legislature repeal the local sales tax on clothing, as have many other counties, to preserve its competitiveness. Calling Tompkins County "a leader in the budget process," he also issued legislators a challenge. Lane urged them to begin the 2009 budget process by reducing the County's tax levy by the same percentage that the assessment roll increases, other than for new construction, in next year's triennial revaluation, a step that he predicted would enable county government to take "a real hard look at where taxes should be next year."

Legislators meeting as an Expanded Budget Committee will hear a final round of department presentations this Thursday, October 4, then will begin recommending modifications to the administrator's budget beginning next Tuesday, October 9 and continuing through the end of the month.

Residents still have the opportunity to comment on the budget at the beginning of any County Legislature meeting, and at the Legislature's formal public hearing on the budget on Tuesday, November 13 beginning at 7:00 p.m. All the meetings take place at Legislature Chambers of the County Courthouse, 320 N. Tioga Street, Ithaca.

Under the County's budget process, the Legislature is scheduled to approve a tentative budget, incorporating the Legislature's changes, on November 6, with adoption of the final budget scheduled for November 20, after the November 13 public hearing.

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