Syracuse, NY - Some Onondaga County legislators want property taxes slashed more than what County Executive Joanie Mahoney proposed Wednesday in her 2011 budget. Democratic Floor Leader Mark Stanczyk said he thinks the county could cut its property tax rate more than the 2.7 percent Mahoney proposed because of its decision this year to redirect to county coffers $64 million...
Syracuse, NY - Some Onondaga County legislators want property taxes slashed more than what County Executive Joanie Mahoney proposed Wednesday in her 2011 budget.
Democratic Floor Leader Mark Stanczyk said he thinks the county could cut its property tax rate more than the 2.7 percent Mahoney proposed because of its decision this year to redirect to county coffers $64 million in sales tax revenues from towns, villages, the City of Syracuse and school districts throughout the county.
“I realize there are a lot of state obligations we have to pay, but we had a significant increase in sales tax receipts and, consequently, there was an implicit understanding that we were going to do our best to pass those savings on to reduce significantly the tax rate,” said Stanczyk, of Syracuse.
Combined with an expected increase in sales tax revenues next year, the county could have an additional $70 million that it could use to meet its expenses and reduce property taxes, he said.
“It’s incumbent on us to reduce taxes to reflect that,” he said. “We have some work to do on this.”
Mahoney’s $1.19 billion budget plan would cut the county’s property tax levy — the money it raises from property taxes — $3.1 million from this year’s $183.9 million to $180.8 million next year. That would reduce the tax rate from $7.04 per $1,000 of assessed value to $6.85 per $1,000 of assessed value, knocking $19 off the tax bill for a housed assessed at $100,000.
Legislator Kathleen Rapp, R-Liverpool, said she, too, would like to see a greater reduction in the property tax levy in light of the sales tax change.
“For those of us who represent the suburbs, we promised them that there would be tax relief,” she said.
Mahoney said the county cannot direct all of the sales tax revenue taken from the towns and villages to reduce the county tax levy because of significant increases in Medicaid, pension, personnel and other costs, many of which are state-mandated or built into contracts with the county’s labor unions.
Mahoney said the county would lay off five to 10 employees. Combined with an early retirement program, the county’s work force will shrink from 4,023 to 3,862 next year, a reduction of 161, she said.
She announced that the county will be taking over the city’s purchasing department and has offered to do the same for all 19 towns and 15 villages.
She also said the county is considering hiring private firms to provide food and health services to the Justice Center jail and county penitentiary, and is looking to turn over all snow-plowing of county roads to the towns and villages and paying them for the service.
Her staff said the county could save about $800,000 a year by having a private company manage inmate food services. The benefits of contracting for health services are still being studied, her spokesman, Martin Skahen, said.
Philip Graham, president of Local 834 of the Civil Service Employees Association, said the union questions the need for any layoffs. It will fight any attempt to outsource the approximately 25 health care and 15 food service jobs held by its members. He said the union doubts that privatizing those inmate services would really save the county money.
Graham said the union also questions the wisdom of having towns and villages plow county roads. It should go the other way around, with the county taking over the plowing of town and village roads, he said.
Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-3148.