Schoharie County’s $80.5 million 2021 budget hit a new low Friday:
A zero percent in the tax levy increase.
Only Fulton Supervisor Phil Skowfoe voted against adopting the $80.5 million budget
No increase in taxes is great, Mr. Skowfoe said.
But especially with it looking like 2020’s sales tax figures are going to be better than forecast, he thinks supervisors should have found a way to give taxpayers a tax cut.
“We think we have some good news here,” County Administrator Steve Wilson told supervisors Friday.
Thanks to about $99,000 in anticipated fourth-quarter spending reductions and $360,000 in revenue increases, the county has $460,000 more than expected to put toward 2021’s spending.
Without the “found” $460,000, the budget would have required a $442,000 increase in the 2021 property tax levy—1.96 percent, but still under the state tax cap of two percent.
By leveraging the $460,000 toward the fund balance, Mr. Wilson said, “the resulting tax levy increase is effectively zero.”
After the spending cuts, about half of the new revenue comes in a gain from the sale of back tax properties--$127,253—and Indigent Legal Services--$60,906.
“It’s something I think we can do,” Mr. Wilson said. “If there’s ever a year…So I offer that as a possibility.”
Another option would have been to divvy up the savings and additional revenue between county departments, but supervisors needed little convincing to apply it to the tax levy.
After a 5.32 percent drop in the second quarter, sales tax revenues seem to be rebounding with third quarter revenues up $356,407 or 7.89 percent to $4.87 million from the same period a year ago.
On the year, Mr. Wilson said, it’s likely they’ll be at least even with 2020’s numbers.
The fact that the county doesn’t typically see a lot of sales tax money from places like restaurants or lodging “kind of insulates,” he said. “People are still buying things online and grocery shopping…”
On the other hand, the county depends more than most on state and federal funding—something that’s being cut as COVID plays out.
“It’s a very mixed bag,” Mr. Wilson said.