Jefferson County board to consider changes to 2012 budget

Jefferson County legislators, displeased with the increased tax levy included in the administration-proposed 2012 budget, were mollified by a series of amendments offered Wednesday to cut the increase by $1 million.

Administration had proposed a $237 million budget, an increase of 4.01 percent, with a rising tax levy of $48.6 million, an increase of 4.22 percent, and true value tax rate of $6.53 per $1,000 in assessed value, an increase of 2.63 percent. The levy increase would be the highest amount allowed under the state-mandated tax cap for the county.

But a few changes recommended in the Finance and Rules Committee meeting on Wednesday afternoon would cut the increase by $1,054,826 so that the tax levy would be $47,576,554, an increase of 1.96 over the 2011 year.

The tax rate would remain at 2011’s $6.36 per $1,000 in assessed value. Property that has not been on the property tax roll due to a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement is moving onto the tax roll in 2012, giving added assessed value in the county and added tax revenue without raising the rate.

“The overall consensus of what I heard was to make sure we got the rate increase to zero,” said Scott A. Gray, committee chairman, during the meeting.

The board will hold a public hearing on the budget at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 in the board’s chambers, 195 Arsenal St.

Under the revised budget, members of the board and the non-union employees would receive a 1 percent pay raise instead of the originally-planned 2 percent raise, a savings of $364,382.

“We were able to bring the tax rate down to the zero increase, not cut employees and still give them a raise in salaries, which they all deserve,” board Chairwoman Carolyn D. Fitzpatrick, R-Watertown, said.

The new plan would also recognize more reimbursement to the Department of Social Services after it moves to direct-billing the state for health benefits and to the Probation Department after it takes over all juvenile detention from Social Services. Those changes add $658,250 to the county coffers.

The Social Services Department will also stop funding a family assistance program to save $63,433. But the District Attorney’s office will add a part-time assistant district attorney to focus on child protection cases, supported mostly through grant money, which will add a net cost of $4,739.

The legislators also added $24,000 to the Board of Elections for election expenses, as next year includes more and larger elections than 2011. The department had requested $225,000 to cover the costs and the number is now $189,000.

Finally, Jefferson County would raise its contribution to the Volunteer Transportation Center by $2,500 to $25,500. The center is one of the nonprofits that the county gives some money to each year.

“We spent a lot of time talking about the authorized agencies, which do a tremendous job,” Mrs. Fitzpatrick said. “For them, this is about the gas, the cost of gas today and the mileage. The volunteers are getting very little and certainly deserve help.”

Mr. Gray said board members asked about the need to add more dispatchers to the county’s Emergency Management Services, which will not be planned for 2012. Instead, the board will look to the state legislature to redirect the money from the cellphone tax to 911 call center providers.

“It is the position of this body that the money collected for a certain service should be used for that service,” he said.