Published: October 01, 2008 12:00 am      

Counties face budget crunch

COOPERSTOWN _ As county legislators craft their 2009 budgets, they can feel tremors coming from Albany.

``I think next year has the potential to be really bad,'' James Powers, R-Butternuts, said Tuesday, hours before the Otsego County Board of Representatives met to review departmental requests.

The crisis among investment banks and related firms on Wall Street has hit New York particularly hard, because the state derives significant income from the financial sector in New York City.

``What hurts the state could end up hurting us, too,'' said Powers, who is board chairman.

With declining state revenues, localities face the probability of declining state aid even as more people are apt to seek services.

And the unraveling of Wall Street is only one of many problems that budgeters face this year, Powers said.

``The cost of fuel, the price of steel, the cost of so many things is up,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the county is also in protracted negotiations with the Local 8100 of the CSEA, a standoff in the hands of a state fact-finder.

To try and restrain county property taxes, the full board has scheduled several meetings to scrutinize requests.

According to Rep. Greg Relic, R-Unadilla, chairman of Otsego County's Administration Committee, departmental and other requests, if all approved, would raise the budget by about $6 million, a number that would send property taxes soaring.

``We've got a lot of cutting to do, and we know it,'' Relic said Tuesday.

Otsego Manor, the county's state-of-the-art nursing home, costs local taxpayers millions of dollars a year in bond payments and operational costs, Relic noted.

``It's a wonderful facility, but it's a big drain on the taxpayers,'' he said.

James Eisel, chairman of the Delaware County Board of Supervisors, said his county sold its nursing home to avoid that annual outlay.

``We're doing what we can to hold expenses down, but it is going to be a tough year, and not just in Delaware County,'' Eisel said Tuesday.

``We're going to hold the line on new hires,'' he said. ``But we've got a union agreement with the CSEA to pay a 3.25 percent more in 2009, and we're negotiating with sheriff's deputies.''

Costs, such as salt for icy roads and steel for guardrails, are going up while some sources of income, such as the mortgage tax, and to a lesser extent, the sales tax, are trending lower, he said.

``We're going to keep the roads plowed and provide essential services, but we're looking for ways to save money,'' said Eisel.

With the state government facing a tax shortfall, he added, ``We don't know what we can count on from Albany.''

Even long-established state programs, such as the Consolidated Highway Improvement Program, which dispenses needed money to counties, could be cut, he said.

Before today's budget meeting in Cooperstown, a number of Otsego County's representatives stopped to talk to each other outside the county office building.

Rep. Donald Lindberg, R-Worcester, former county board chairman, said this year's budget session might also be difficult because the county did not roll over a substantial fund balance in the current budget.

Last year's county budget was not approved by representatives, so under state law, the county's tentative budget became the budget.