Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan.

MAYVILLE – County executive Vince Horrigan has submitted the county’s multi-government efficiency plan to Albany as part of the state’s Property Tax Freeze Credit program.

According to Horrigan’s office, the plan included the participation of 30 of the 45 government entities in the county and demonstrates a projected local savings of nearly $13 million during the years of 2017 through 2019.

Some of the efficiencies identified in the plan started as early as 2012.

Some of the efficiencies outlined in the plan included:

• The privatization of the Chautauqua County Home with an approximate $2.6 million per year savings in IGT Funding;
• The Towns of Dunkirk, Pomfret, Portland, Sheridan and Village of Brocton participating in the North County Water District, saving $365,000 per year during the plan year of 2017 through 2019;
•  The merger of the Chautauqua County’s Department of Social Services and Department of Health into the Department of Health and Human Services with an ongoing savings of $235,000 per year;
•  The City of Jamestown’s reduction and realignment of staff duties while maintaining the same level of services resulted in $190,961 of ongoing savings;
• The reduction of the size of the Chautauqua County Legislature with a savings of $67,000 each year.

The Property Tax Freeze Credit Program encourages local governments to generate long-term relief for taxpayers by sharing services, consolidating or merging, and demonstrating and implementing operational efficiencies.

Each county is required to send an efficiency plan had to the State Division of Budget. Additionally, the local government must comply with the 2% Property Tax Cap in order to ensure that homeowners, who have a total household income of $500,000 or less, are eligible to receive the rebate on their primary residencies in 2015 and 2016.

For more information about the tax rebate visit the New York State Division of Budget website at www.budget.ny.gov/govEfficiencyPlans/govEfficiencyPlans.html .

Chautauqua County executive Vince Horigan hosted the shared services forum in order to go over the basic details of the governor’s property tax freeze program, which was announced earlier this year and involves providing rebates to residents across the state if their local governments are able to hold the line on spending and also find ways to share services.

Joining Horigan was Dave Lucas from from the New York State Association of Counties, who explained why the program was initiated.

“It’s to get folks to look at different ways to deliver services,” Lucas explained. “Is there a better way to do it? Is there a more efficient way? Since they’re both performing the same service, can they do it better if they do it together?”

Lucas also explained that through the program if local governments are able to show the state that they are able to prevent an increase in local spending by combining services with other municipalities, the state would pass that savings on to the local taxpayers in those areas.

“Someone freezes the levy or cuts it, they should get a rebate check for the maximum allowable growth for that jurisdiction, and that is how they changed the bill [to make it better for local governments],” Lucas said. “In some jurisdictions the check [per property owners] could be quit small. In others you might get a couple of hundred books. It depends on the value of the home, along with other factors.”

Assemblyman Andy Goodell was also in attendance to answer questions, one of which was why is the state asking local governments to share services, when it could do a better job of creating more efficiencies in Albany. Goodell explained that some effort has in fact been made in Albany to reduce spending, but admited more can also be done.

“For example we’ve consolidated race & wagering and the lottery into one commission on gaming. We’ve created a new financial serves group that combines banking and insurance, so the state has been doing that, and that’s one reason why the state’s overall general fund spending has been below two percent.”

In order to qualify for a rebates, local governments are to first demonstrate that they are staying within the state’s required tax cap program… that includes not passing a local law to over ride a tax cap.  In the second year, the municipalities are to submit an Efficiency Plan to the state by June 1, 2015.

Horrigan says the county will be collecting information from local governments between now and June 1 of next year to identify shared services that are already in place, as well as determine what other efficiencies can be created. The group of local government leaders will meet again in November to get an update on that process.

Information will also be updated on the county website at www.co.chautauqua.ny.us.