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After seven prior sessions and four hours of discussion today, Legislators acting as an Expanded Budget Committee recommended an amended tentative Tompkins County budget which would increase the tax levy by less than 3 percent.

The proposed amended budget, recommended by a vote of 8-6, would increase the levy - the total amount of property tax revenue collected - by 2.93 percent, and the tax rate by 1.6 percent, to $6.87 per thousand dollars assessed property value. Voting against the proposal were Legislators Dick Booth, Mike Hattery, Frank Proto, Tyke Randall, Mike Sigler and Greg Stevenson. (An Ithaca City budget commitment forced Legislator Leslyn McBean-Clairborne to be absent for the final committee vote.) The recommended amended budget will be considered by the County Legislature at its next meeting on November 7 and, if adopted at that time will be called the "Legislative Tentative Budget" and will become the basis for budget deliberations after that time.

The Legislature had established a 2008 goal of a levy increase of no more than 2 percent, and legislators reflected on the outcome of deliberations so far. Legislator Stevenson was one who said that, with cumulative financial pressures his constituents face from all taxing authorities, he believes the committee "could have done a little better." Proto said he would like to get a sense of public, department and agency reaction before deciding whether to endorse the budget, and Nathan Shinagawa, who had been highly critical of the Legislature's 2 percent goal, said he now believes that benchmark provided legislators additional discipline in their difficult budget review. Many of the legislators thanked departments, agencies and staff for their assistance during the budget review process.

The committee incorporated the following changes, before recommending the amended budget. (The committee's decisions still remain as recommendations and may be modified in later deliberations by the Legislature before final adoption of the budget.)

ADDITIONAL USE OF FUND BALANCE TO DECREASE THE TAX LEVY:
To help achieve the levy increase of less than 3 percent, legislators, by a vote of 9-6, recommended allocation of an additional $50,000 of fund balance to decrease the tax levy, beyond the $1 million already included in the County Administrator's budget.

TOMPKINS COUNTY SPCA:
$5,000 in one-time funding and another $15,000 to be held in contingency was recommended for the SPCA for the County's contract with the agency for cat control, approved by a vote of 13-1 (with Legislator Pam Mackesey absent for the vote.) The agency has sought to double the County's contract rate to address long-standing financial shortfalls. Administrator Steve Whicher, who had included $5,000 in target funding in his tentative budget, now recommended $20,000 in one-time funding to enable the County, along with other municipalities, to work with the SPCA to work toward addressing the financial issues over the next several months. Holding $15,000 in contingency means that another legislative vote would be needed to release the remaining funding.

TOMPKINS CONSOLIDATED AREA TRANSIT:
By a vote of 11-4, the committee called for a decrease from 9 to 6 percent of the County's share of funding for over-target operational expenses, which would amount to more than $43,000 in target funding, rather than nearly $55,000 in target and $10,000 in one-time funding recommended by the County Administrator.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Legislators by a 10-5 vote approved more than $15,000 in target funding to support a Seasonal Sanitarian program, and by a vote of 9-6 restored more than $13,000 in target funding for the department's new Well Inspection Program.

HUMAN SERVICES COALITION AGENCIES:
The committee, by a 9-6 vote, approved one-time funding to support a part-time assistant coordinator for the Multi-Cultural Resource Center at a cost of $15,000.

By a 12-3 vote, Legislators cut $10,000 in one-time funding that the County Administrator had recommended for the Southside Community Center.

For the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance (now known as the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes), the committee initially voted 8-7 to remove $25,000 from the agency's base budget to be replaced by one-time funding, then later reversed that decision, restoring that funding to target, by a 10-4 vote.

OFFENDER AID AND RESTORATION:
The committee, by a 9-6 vote, removed from the 2008 budget $10,000 in one-time money it had added to the bail fund. To meet immediate needs, 2007 contingency funding will be recommended as an alternative, to be considered in separate action by the Legislature at its next meeting.

By a vote of 8-7, the committee called for $35,000 in one-time agency funding supporting the community re-entry program to be moved to contingency, pending a report to the Legislature on program results.

Among Other Actions

JAIL - CORRECTIONS OFFICER:
The committee failed to restore funding to support an additional Corrections Officer, at a cost of nearly $67,000. A proposal to fund the position through one-time money failed by a vote of 5-10; a motion to support it through target funding also failed, by a vote of 4-11.

PUBLIC WORKS:
Proposed reductions in the Highway and Facilities budgets also failed to win support A proposed $75,000 target reduction for the Highway budget was defeated by a vote of 4-11; a smaller proposed reduction of $30,000 also failed, by a vote of 6-9. A proposed $35,000 target reduction in the Facilities budget also failed, by a vote of 4-11.

TOMPKINS COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY:
Two motions to reduce funding for Library Acquisitions, which had been added in earlier deliberations, both were unsuccessful. The committee had earlier added $25,000 in target funding to the $25,000 in one-time money in the administrator's budget. A recommendation eliminate that target funding failed by a vote of 5-7; a proposal to convert it to $50,000 in one-time funding also failed, by a vote of 7-8.

ITHACA DOWNTOWN PARTNERSHIP
A proposal to add $10,000 in one-time funding to support the Ithaca Downtown Partnership was defeated by a vote of 7-8, with some legislators suggesting that the issue and alternate means of providing support be examined outside of the budget process.

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