Schoharie County’s tax levy will go up 3.9 percent under the $91.3 million budget unveiled Friday.
Administrator Steve Wilson’s “economy neutral” 2020 budget, detailed to supervisors Friday, stresses the importance of economic development—and includes funding to help that along.
But as expected and predicted, the cost of the new jail will hit hard: it adds $1.9 million to the 2020 plan.
In addition to his tentative budget, which exceeds the county’s tax cap and uses $2.7 million from the fund balance, Mr. Wilson’s plan also offers up a couple other alternatives, both with a lower tax levy increases--and fewer services.
“In my mind, this is a start,” Mr. Wilson said Thursday.
“I expect supervisors and the Finance Committee to make policy decisions…it’s my job to help them out. I would be flabbergasted if they simply accepted this straight off. It’s going to be tough.”
Health insurance remains unchanged in the budget.
There’s also nothing included for CSEA raises—though Mr. Wilson said there’s more than enough money in the fund balance to cover that should the contract dispute be resolved.
Still, Mr. Wilson said, there are other claims on the $7.5 million in the fund balance that he feels comfortable using once the $10 million he considers “untouchable” is subtracted.
Among them: the local share of jail costs and the streambank project.
Mr. Wilson’s budget matches the tax increase with the increase in property values—something he said is critical to economic growth.
With that in mind, he’s boosting economic development funding by $56,000, suggesting supervisors hire an additional planner to work with Main Street business districts and double consultant Peter Fairweather’s line to $30,000 so Mr. Fairweather can continue working with towns and villages on mapping and developing shovel-ready sites.
While it’s not a new position, Mr. Wilson is also working on replacing the senior planner position held by Alicia Terry—who retired in May—with an agricultural business specialist—again with the goal of maximizing the Fairweather Report.
“We’re really looking to SEEC to lead the way on economic development,” Mr. Wilson said.
“The county’s role is to help with planning and analysis. In my mind, that’s something we haven’t done enough.”

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Other options to the “economy neutral” budget Mr. Wilson’s also offers in his 2020 plan:
• A budget that falls under the state tax cap of 2.59 percent that would require an additional $306,000 in cuts.
• A “current services” budget that would increase taxes by 1.4 percent and spending by $308,633—but doesn’t include any increases to jail salaries or costs.
Line-by-line work on the budget began Monday.