County tax levy to rise 3.5%

LOWVILLE — Lewis County legislators on Wednesday adopted a 2010 budget that increases the tax levy by 3.5 percent and drops the full-value tax rate by 2.86 percent.

Lawmakers voted 8-0 to adopt the $51.02 million spending plan, along with several other related resolutions. Legislators Michael A. Tabolt, R-Croghan, and Patrick F. Wallace, R-Lowville, were absent.

"I think everyone has done an excellent job this year to keep the levies where they are and still keep the services we should provide," said Legislature Chairman Jack T. Bush, R-Brantingham.

As expected, legislators added $133,600 for contractual agencies — including the Lewis County Chamber of Commerce, libraries and the Lewis County Historical Society — to essentially keep their funding levels the same as in the 2009 budget. The vote was 7-1, with Legislator Charles R. Fanning, R-Copenhagen, who has been openly critical of such subsidies for the past two years, opposed.

To offset the extra expenditures, legislators reduced a line item for Department of Social Services intergovernmental transfers from $370,102 to $236,502.

That funding helps to reimburse the federal government for losses on Medicaid and uninsured patients at Lewis County General Hospital, County Treasurer Vicki A. Roy said after the meeting. However, county officials aren't provided much advance notice on when those bills will come in and how much they'll cost, she said.

Mrs. Roy said that she doesn't anticipate any such bills until well into 2010, if at all, and that budget transfers or amendments could cover any unbudgeted expenses.

"I think we're safe in postponing the budget on that," she said.

The 2009 budget set aside no funding for that item.

Spending in the 2010 budget will decrease by 0.5 percent from this year's $51.27 million budget.

The tax levy will rise by $422,483, from $11.99 million to $12.42 million. However, thanks to an increase in countywide taxable value from $1.71 billion to $1.83 billion, the full-value tax rate will drop from $7 per $1,000 of assessed value to $6.80 per $1,000.

Two people spoke at Wednesday's public hearing on the budget.

"We'd like to thank Lewis County for taking a stand in support of our libraries this year," said Randy W. LaLonde, president of Lowville Free Library's board of directors.

Jacquelyn Prashaw, a member of the Lewis County Humane Society board, also asked legislators to consider providing funding for her group. County Manager David H. Pendergast said that the late request wouldn't be included in the budget, but that legislators could choose to add it later through a budget amendment.

The meeting lasted about a half-hour, because that was the minimum length set for the public hearing. However, due to lack of comments, lawmakers spent about 15 minutes talking among themselves while waiting to formally close the hearing.

The scene was very different last year, when several hundred people packed into the Lowville Academy and Central School auditorium and spent three hours attacking the tentative 2009 budget and its proposed 52 job cuts. Legislators ultimately restored nearly all those positions. No layoffs were proposed in the 2010 spending plan.