The Chautauqua County Legislature during its August 2017 meeting.

MAYVILLE – The Chautauqua County Legislature has unanimously approved a 2018 budget that contains no tax increase.

During last night’s meeting, lawmakers approved a revised $234 million spending plan that contains a slight tax decrease of $0.04 per thousand, bringing the new tax rate to $8.44 per thousand assessed value for 2018.  That means for property valued at $100,000, the county tax will be $4 lower in 2018 than in 2017.

Legislator Pierre Chagnon (R-Bemus Point), who chairs the legislature’s Audit and Control Committee, said it was a group effort to bring the tax rate down, compared to what had been presented in County Executive Vince Horrigan’s (R-Bemus Point) initial spending plan.

“It was a tough mountain we had to climb this year, I said that when the county executive put out his tentative budget. It was a ten cent increase in the tax rate and we were hoping to have  a fourth year of a tax decrease,” Chagnon said following the meeting. “With the help of the chairman of the legislature, we let all the legislators know this was going to take team work and everyone had to come to the pump on this one, everyone’s got to be part of a solution here. So every member of the legislature contributed to this. We had even had department heads coming to us and saying, ‘I have a suggestion on how you can reduce my budget.’ Unbelievable. It was such a team effort this year and we climbed the mountain and we went over the top.”

Horrigan, who is not running for reelection this year, said that while his initial budget did call for a tax increase of 2 percent, he’s comfortable with what lawmakers did to finalize the budget and will sign off on it.

“I didn’t want for my last budget to submit a big property tax cut that I can ride out of town with and say, ‘Yay I did that.’ And leave it is some sort of last win for me. No. This has got to be something that is good for this county for the next five years and this budget will keep us financially stable with sufficient reserves through the year 2022. That has been my biggest goal,” Horrigan said.

The biggest adjustment lawmakers made to bring the spending down was a $350,000 cut in safety net funding – which is used to help families in need. Lawmakers agreed that fewer county residents were in need of that fund and as a result, felt it could be adjusted.

The county sheriff’s office also took a $235,000 hit in its budget, with $100,000 being eliminated from the jail budget.

Chautauqua County Sheriff Joe Gerace said was disappointed the funding was removed, especially for the county jail which has seen chronic over-crowding in recent years, but said he’ll do his best to make it work.

“Hopefully all the work that we are trying to put toward reforming the criminal justice system and rightsizing the county jail, having the people in there that truly belong there and making sure that we move others to state prison more rapidly will help, but it’s going to take the effort of a lot of people. Hopefully that will solve our issues and our budget will be okay. But I am concerned with unexpected board-out fees,” Gerace said.

According to the sheriff, the county pays $85 per day for every county inmate that has to be sent to a jail outside of the county due to exceeding maximum occupancy in the county jail.

It was the fourth year in a row that lawmakers were able to vote on a budget that actually included a tax decrease. That’s partly due to the sale of the Chautauqua County Home in 2014, along with an increase in the County Sales Tax in 2015. This year, the county also sold the south county office building, providing a one-time revenue generator of $1.7 million.

During Wednesday’s Public Safety Committee Meeting, Gerace provided information on shifts and time-off slots at the Chautauqua County Jail in an effort to illustrate who it’s important the county maintain the amount of overtime funding that was initially included in county executive Vince Horrigan’s proposed budget. During budget deliberations earlier this month, lawmakers recommended cutting $50,000 to overtime in the Sheriff’s Office as part of its effort an effort to rein in spending.

In addition, the Sheriff’s office also faces tentative cuts to the deputy sheriff’s road patrol and a decrease in food expenses at the jail. The total suggested decrease for the office equals $218,000.

Chautauqua County Public Defender Ned Barone was also on hand to discuss the proposed cutting of one assistant public defender in next year’s tentative budget. Following the conversation with Barone, the committee voted to restore funding for his office.

The county budget will be further discussed and finalized during the legislature’s meeting next Wednesday night in Mayville.

• RELATED: Horrigan Proposes $236.4 Million County Budget with 2 Percent Tax Increase

On Thursday the committee met for a reported four hours and came up with a suggested $906,000 decrease to the County Executive’s tentative budget. That cut would eliminate the proposed 10 cent-per thousand tax hike by Horrigan, and would actually reduce taxes by 2.7 cents from the 2017 tax rate.

Among the recommended cuts was a $218,000 decrease from the Sheriff’s Department’s proposed budget, cutting a proposed assistant public defender position – saving $80,000, and a reduction of $68,000 from the district attorney’s office proposed budget.

The recommended adjustments will be reviewed and discussed by the full legislature during its October voting session, scheduled for Oct. 25.

The issue came up Tuesday as part of budget discussions with the legislature’s Administrative Services Committee.

The Coroners are asking for an increase and change in fee structure. Currently the coroners are paid $80 per day for a 24-hour period. They want to see that increased to $150 per case, instead of the current rate of pay at $80 per day. According to the coroners, the proposed rate is similar to what other counties in the state are currently paying.  Lawmakers said they will take the request into consideration as they continue to discussion the budget.

The coroner’s role includes confirming and certifying the deaths of individuals. Chautauqua County coroners handled 866 cases in 2016.

The County Legislature is currently reviewing the budget for 2018, with a deadline of approving a final spending plan Dec. 1, 2017.

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MAYVILLE – Outgoing Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan presented his final budget proposal Wednesday to the Chautauqua County Legislature, which included a 2 percent increase in property taxes, the first increase in property taxes in the last three years.

As presented, total county spending for 2018 would be $236.4 million, up 3.3 percent from the $228.8 million budget for the current year. Horrigan attributes the spending increase to a number of factors, including increasing the number of social service, county jail, and district attorney and public defender positions. In all, 21 new positions would be added in 2018 under Horrigan’s proposal.

County Executive Vince Horrigan Delivers the 2018 Budget to the Chautauqua County Legislature on Sept. 27, 2017.

Horrigan said that the state’s Office of Child and Family Services also hit the county with an unexpected steep increase in costs for juvenile detention. In addition to the cost escalating from $340,000 to $1.2 million dollars, the office is also calling on the county to pay an additional $715,000 in retroactive payment for the year 2015.

To offset the additional costs, Horrigan is proposing the county use $1.4 million of its unrestricted fund balance, in addition to increasing property taxes by 2 percent – going from $8.48/thousand to $8.58 per thousand.  Put another way, it would be a $10 increase for property assessed at $100,000.

Horrigan told WRFA following his presentation that while he didn’t want to call for a tax increase, he also wanted to ensure that he is leaving the county on sound financial footing.

“When I leave as county executive, I don’t want to leave a cliff. I don’t want something that will look good while I step out the door, I want something long term,” Horrigan said. “The legislature can reduce this, there’s different way they can do it. But, in my judgement, this is the best budget for Chautauqua County.”

Horrigan has opted not to run for reelection, with Republican Legislator George Borrello of Hanover and Democratic Businessman Mike Ferguson of Fredonia running for the office in this year’s election.

The spending plan now goes before the County Legislature for its consideration and members on both sides of the aisle say they will take a close look and see if they can’t bring some of the spending down.

“Our work now begins,” explained Jamestown Democrat and Audit and Control Committee Member Chuck Nazzaro. “We’ll be here four days next week meeting with each department manager going through the budget. I don’t want to micromanage the budget because we have a great team. But I think we need to look at the overall picture and see where that spending increase comes from.”

The legislature will have to finalize the spending plan by Dec. 1, 2017.

This is Horrigan’s final year in office, as he has decided not to run for reelection in November.

Once the 2018 executive budget is presented, county legislators will begin their review of it by meeting with department heads and determining if any additional modifications are needed. They will then need to pass a final budget on or before December 1, 2017.  In recent years they’ve been able to adopt a budget well in advance of the deadline, typically during the October voting session.

Tonight’s presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Legislative Chambers of the Gerace Office Building, Mayville.

 SALE OF PROPERTY HIGHLIGHTS VOTING AGENDA

The Legislature will also consider selling three county-owned buildings, including one in downtown Jamestown, to a private business.

The three properties involved with the proposed sale are the South County Office Building on East Fourth Street in Jamestown for $1.7 million, the Frank W. Bratt Agricultural Center on Turner Road in Ellicott for $75,000, and the Sherman Shop Maintenance Facility on Route 430 for $750,000. All three would be sold to Jamestown Rental Properties, LLC.

According to officials, the South County Office Building in Jamestown is being considered for sale due to needed repairs to the structure and a desire to place the building back on the tax rolls.

The County Health and Human Services would continue to use the building, with rent costing $591,000 and an annual increase of 4 percent each year over the 10 year period.

The proposal has drawn criticism from some, including Chautauqua County Legislature Candidate Frank Besse of Jamestown, who says there is no long-term plan for the county’s social service operations in Jamestown – with only a 10-year lease agreement. In a post on his campaign facebook page, Besse says the county would be better suited to continue to run its social services operations out of facilities that it owns, especially since it already has spent money to provide some upgrades to the building.

PUBLIC HEARING ON NORTH COUNTY WATER DISTRICT FUNDING

The legislature will also host a public hearing on the adoption of the modified Map and Plan that includes changes to the improvements and financing of the North County Water District’s initial capital improvements.

The estimated maximum cost of the improvements as modified would increase from $11,750,000 to $15,068,000, but due to an increase in grants, contributions, and subsidized financing, the estimated annual District debt service of $292,500 is approximately the same as the original estimated annual debt service amount of $292,030.

All District costs are to be paid by municipalities receiving water from the District.

The public hearing will begin at 6:45 p.m. following the county executive’s budget presentation.

Chautauqua County District Attorney Patrick Swanson (right) appeared before members of the county legislator’s Public Safety Committee during its January 2017 meeting. He returned to the committee this month to discuss staffing needs in his office.

MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County District Attorney Patrick Swanson says increased caseloads is leading to his request for increased staffing.

The Jamestown Post-Journal is reporting that Swanson appeared before the county legislature’s public safety committee on Wednesday, telling lawmakers he’d like to increase his staff by five additional prosecutors over the next three years and will be requesting two new prosecutors in the 2018 budget.

Currently the DA’s office has nine attorneys and three investigators, one full-time and two part-time.

According to Swanson, prosecutors in his office are dealing with 100 to 200 cases a year. Annually, 7,000 criminal cases and 10,000 traffic offenses are handled by prosecutors.

Swanson said that by adding additional help to his office, he’d be able to place an attorney to deal solely with child sex crimes. He said other prosecutors added to his staff would be able to work on cases involving 16- and 17-year-olds, which are now required to be heard in Family Court per the state’s new “Raise the Age” law, which goes into effect starting in 2018.

The annual cost of adding all the new positions requested by Swanson would reportedly be about $700,000.

Of the county’s $229 million budget, about 1.5 million currently goes toward the DA office.