Warren County supervisors on Friday rejected the county's tentative 2010 budget and the tax hike it would bring, directing that it be sent back for more cuts that could begin as soon as Tuesday.
The Board of Supervisors scheduled a special Budget Committee meeting for Tuesday, at which supervisors will consider additional work to a $148.1 million proposed budget that would raise taxes 10.1 percent. (The increase had stood at 10.8 percent earlier in the week, but dropped after mathematical errors were found.)
Spending in the budget is up 1.3 percent, but a large drop in revenue and increase in costs such as salaries and mandated programs has caused the tax levy to swell by more than 10 percent, even with more than $7 million worth of cuts.
The board could have agreed to adopt the budget and forwarded it for a public hearing, but after a number of supervisors voiced concerns about the tax hike and indicated they could not vote to approve it, the board opted to keep it back for further action.
It was the first time in recent memory the board failed to forward the tentative budget to public hearing when given the opportunity to do so.
In past years, the board has usually adopted its budget by early November, but with next week being a short one because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the earliest the budget can now be adopted is the first week of December.
The budget prompted much consternation Friday, with Queensbury Supervisor Dan Stec and Queensbury at-large Supervisor Fred Champagne both saying they want the tax increase whittled down to 6 percent, which would require at least $1.5 million dollars more worth of cuts. Champagne said he had concerns about what such a big tax increase would mean to businesses in the county that are already struggling.
Stec said the board needs to decide how much of a tax increase it can stomach, then work to get to that number.
Chester Supervisor Fred Monroe, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said more cuts do not seem feasible, and the board will have to find ways to raise revenue instead.
"We're not like a business where we can go out of business or file bankruptcy," said. "We have to provide these services."
Glens Falls 5th Ward Supervisor William Kenny said he believes the budget still can be cut, saying the county has "boats, trains, planes and a lot of stuff that government isn't meant to do."
Geraghty and others warned against raising revenues in the budget to figures that will be hard to meet.
"Let's seriously solve this and not just make it look good on paper," said Thurman Supervisor Lawrence "Red" Pitkin.
Geraghty pointed out the county has eliminated 72 jobs since last year.
The meeting brought a renewed pitch by several supervisors for a 1 percent increase in the county sales tax. Lake Luzerne Supervisor Gene Merlino, the leading supporter of an increase, said the higher sales tax rate could take effect for half of next year, and would put Warren County on par with most other counties in the state.
"This is a way to get Warren County back into financial security and it's our job to keep it that way," Merlino said.
Glens Falls 1st Ward Supervisor Dan Girard said the board could eliminate the property tax hike with a half-year of revenue next year from a boosted sales tax.
Merlino also called for a change to the way the board votes on major issues, such as budgets and tax increases, after he made his pitch for a sales tax increase.
He criticized the weighted voting system, saying it allows a handful of supervisors from more populated areas to block issues that a majority of supervisors otherwise support.
He said he believes, on certain issues, the board should change the law to scrap the weighted system, which goes by population in each board member's town or district, and instead use a "one supervisor, one vote" method but require a two-thirds majority for a measure to pass.
"I think it's unfair," he said, of the weighted system.