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Lansing's representative on the County Legislator Pat Pryor gave a 'heads up' to the Town Board Wednesday about possible cuts to County programs next year that could impact the Town and all municipalities as they plan their own 2012 budgets.  Pryor laid the blame for 5% of this year's County tax rise on unfunded state mandates, and said that next year more discretionary programs could be sacrificed to pay for mandated programs, especially is a 2% property tax cap is imposed by state legislators.

"I don't really know what they're going to do at the state level," Pryor said.  "What we do know is that it's going to have a very direct impact on what happens at the county level because so much of our budget is mandated to provide programs that the state requires us to provide.  Five percent of the tax increase that we had to arrange for this year was to go for programs that the state mandates.  Less than one percent of that increase went for local cost."

Pryor said that the rise in costs could mean more than a 5% rise in the cost of state mandated programs.  If New York State imposes a 2% cap, the rest of that money would have to come from programs that are not mandated, but the County chooses to fund.  Some of those programs took a hit this year, and even without a tax cap the outlook for these programs is dreary.

Governor David Patterson proposed a property tax cap last year.  Currently New York is the highest taxed state in the nation, but opposition to the cap has come from Tompkins County officials and other counties around the state.  It has especially been criticized as harmful to education, which is suffering a 'funding cliff' of reduced state aid and the end of federal stimulus money.  Governor Cuomo has said he also wants to reduce the tax burden on property owners.  He has called for a 2% cap with limited exceptions.  If his plan goes forward a majority of 60% of voters could overturn the cap for their taxing authorities.


Tompkins County legislators have been in the forefront of opposing a cap unless unfunded mandates are repealed, however not all spending on mandated programs is required.  County Administrator Joe Mareane explained, at a town meeting Pryor held in Lansing last June, that how much counties spend on mandated programs is somewhat discretionary with some governments choosing to add levels of service and cost and to meet the mandates in different ways.  Fixed mandated costs to the County in a 2011 'rollover' budget were reported at $37.7 million, while locally controlled spending, including discretionary on mandated programs, was $38.2 million.

Pryor said that non-mandated programs include 911 Emergency Response, the Sheriff Department's Road Patrol, facilities maintenance, highway maintenance, the Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL), mental health services, youth services, information technology, the County Office For the Aging, county administration, and contractors that provide various services for the County.

She took a moment to highlight TCPL and the Office For The Aging, stressing that losing these programs would have a human cost as well as a financial impact.

"Our county library is the lead library in the Fingerlakes Library System," she explained.  "If we don't fund them at at least the current year's level, then it loses its status as the lead library.  That means it loses some of its other funding also, not just the funding from Tompkins County.  One of the biggest things the County Office For the Aging does is help people stay home rather than having to go into nursing homes.  Ultimately if we got rid of the County Office For the Aging many of those people would have to go into nursing homes.  The costs would increase because then they would go on Medicaid, and Medicaid costs would go up."

Pryor noted that cuts on the County level could well mean cuts on Town, City, and village levels.

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