The 2012 budget for Schoharie County, which could contain several layoffs, is undergoing another revision by the finance committee.
Finance committee members met with department heads last week and are to complete meeting this week, said Alicia Terry, co-budget officer for the county.
After the meetings, members will take all the information, make decisions on cuts and spending and present a new version of the proposed budget to the full board, Ms. Terry said.
A special budget meeting of the Board of Supervisors is expected, possibly on December 9, Ms. Terry said.
The goal, she added, is have the final budget in place by December 16, the date of the next regular meeting of the county board.
The $59.7 million tentative budget proposed by Ms. Terry and co-budget officer Paul Brady, contained the elimination of 30 full-time jobs and seven part-time positions and an average tax rate hike of eight percent.
At the public hearing early this month, supervisors received a list that contained a list of the elimination or reduction of almost 80 county positions, which include the original cuts.
Supervisors, Mr. Terry said, could include some or all of the potential layoffs, job cuts and position reductions.
"It might be a possibility, it might not," she said.
Ms. Terry said notices of a possible layoff were given to the people identified in the tentative budget but she did not believe the notices were sent to the additional people in the expanded list.
According to union rules, workers cannot be laid off without a 30-day notice.
The decisions that will be made will be difficult ones, Ms. Terry said.
"No one takes this lightly. There are impacts all the way around."
The layoffs could hit almost 60 employees in about 20 departments.
The moves, which supervisors have said are just proposals and have not yet been approved, would heavily hit the Sheriff's office, the Youth Bureau, and emergency medical services.
Cuts are necessary in the 2012 budget to avoid large tax increases.
Without any layoffs or job cuts, the tax hike would be about 20 percent, Ms. Terry said. Before the co-budget officers trimmed back requests from the county departments, the tax hike stood at 30 percent.
If all the personnel cuts were approved by supervisors, the tax hike would be under two percent, Ms. Terry said.
Spending has been cut in the budget but a drop in revenue and the amount of all taxable real property in the county could force more cuts.
The expanded list of layoffs and job reductions contained 60 potential layoffs, six positions that would be cut from full to part-time and another 13 vacant positions that would be eliminated.
The layoff list targeted 13 corrections officers and nine members of the Sheriff's road patrol.
The county jail was closed after the August 28 flood and since then corrections officers have been used to patrol the streets of Schoharie. Those patrols are to end this week.
The loss of the jail hurts the county in two ways.
County prisoners have to be taken in Albany County and there is a loss of revenue from the boarding of inmates.
In 2010, the county generated over $900,000 from boarding of prisoners.
Layoffs could also hit the following departments: health, buildings and grounds, public works, county clerk, economic development, mental health, the Office for the Aging, the Old Stone Fort, planning, real property, safety, transportation, and health.
Jobs would be cut from full to part-time in 911 dispatching, elections, EMS, real property, and the treasurer's office.
Vacant positions would be eliminated in the department of social services, emergency management, mental health, personnel and civil service, public works, the sheriff's office and youth bureau.