- By Marcia E. Lynch
- News
Print 
County Administrator Joe Mareane cautioned that the upcoming process of developing the County’s 2011 budget will be extremely difficult. Mareane reported departments and agencies have included nearly $4.5 million in over target requests as part of their budget submissions which he is currently reviewing—requests that seek restoration of items they were forced to cut to meet the directed 6.9% reduction in target spending. With the current fiscal restraints and less flexibility than past years, the administrator cautioned there will be no source to fund any of those requests, aside from either raising the tax levy or reducing target spending elsewhere. Mareane cautioned, “At this point, it’s a zero-sum game—one department’s gain is going to be another one’s loss.”
While there may be a bit of revenue realized from better-than-expected sales tax proceeds and financial savings in health costs through the intermunicipal health insurance consortium, the administrator warned that money will not be available to support OTRs, since it must be used to offset revenues projected from an increase in the county mortgage tax. $1 million in revenue was projected in planning for the 2011 budget from a quarter-percent increase in the mortgage tax, but the County’s home rule request, along with other such local revenue requests from across the state, has been denied by the New York State Senate.
While the federal government has extended enhanced support of Medicaid to the states through the stimulus program (which for New York State provides a share to counties, since the counties share in supporting Medicaid), Mareane cautioned that increase will not directly affect the 2011 county budget, since those funds were not included in revenue projections, as in some other counties. As in the past, Tompkins County will reserve the anticipated $700,000-800,000in stimulus funds as a hedge against future aid reductions and other shortfalls.
Both he and Finance Director David Squires expressed deep concern about the State’s announced contingency fund plan to fill the State revenue gap left by receiving only 2/3 of the enhanced federal Medicaid contribution expected—to reduce all local aid payments by up to 2% to make up the State’s $300 million shortfall.
----
v6i31