NIAGARA COUNTY
Proposed budget would provide tax decrease for most homeowners
LOCKPORT — Niagara County Manager Gregory D. Lewis is proud of his proposed 2009 county budget, which he released Friday.
“It’s the best budget I’ve ever been associated with,” Lewis said of the spending plan, which features a small property tax decrease for most homeowners.
The $304 million budget spends $2 million more than this year’s version, but the average homeowner sees a tax rate reduction of 21 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, or $21 on a $100,000 house.
However, the actual tax rates vary by municipality, depending on how close to full value assessments are and the equalization rates set by the state.
County Real Property Services Director William F. Budde Jr. calculated that if Lewis’ budget is adopted unchanged by the County Legislature, there will be tax rate reductions in seven towns and two cities.
Rates would fall $1.73 per $1,000 of assessed value in Royalton; 51 cents in the City of Lockport; 27 cents in Somerset; 23 cents in Wilson and Niagara Falls; 22 cents in Newfane; and 21 cents in Cambria, the Town of Lockport and Pendleton.
The communities with tax rate increases would be Hartland, 63 cents; Porter, 36 cents; Lewiston and the Town of Niagara, each 6 cents; North Tonawanda, 4 cents; and Wheatfield, less than a penny.
Legislators’ salaries are unchanged in the budget.
Lewis noted he and his staff battled adverse economic conditions in crafting the budget.
Legislature Minority Leader Dennis F. Virtuoso said, “I think it’s great. I feel the manager and the department heads did a great job.”
The budget funds 1,663 county jobs, which is 222 fewer than the county had two years ago. Most of that is the result of the closing of Mount View Health Facility at the end of 2007.
Lewis also pointed to a reduction of close to $1 million in health insurance costs in one year, thanks to the county’s self-insured, single-vendor plan.
Despite that, Budget Director Dan Huntington acknowledged that there would have been a 2.5 percent tax increase if it weren’t for a onetime net federal payment of $1.7 million for leftover Medicaid reimbursements to Mount View.
The county also is projecting a $1.5 million increase in sales tax receipts, more than offsetting a $1.1 million increase in Medicaid costs. The budget assumes an increase of less than 1 percent in the appropriation of surplus funds.
Lewis said he doesn’t think the state will be able to institute serious reductions in local aid in the near term because of political gridlock in Albany.
“It’s a big ship, New York State. Whether they’ll be able to turn that ship around in one year is questionable. I think it’ll take multiple years,” Lewis said. “That gives us time. We still have to make changes. We’re already looking to 2010.”
Virtuoso complained that the $2 million the county received this year from the Industrial Development Agency, which repaid two 1980s loans from the county coffers, was not applied to reduce taxes.
Murgia said that still could happen, but for now, that money legally must rest in the reserve fund from which the loans were originally made.
