The Onondaga County Legislature’s Ways & Means Committee recommended about $50 million in changes to County Executive Joanie Mahoney’s proposed 2011 spending plan Thursday — changes that legislative leaders said would avoid major property tax increases next year. The committee recommended spending cuts that included selling the Sheriff’s Department helicopter, Air One, and eliminating 29 deputy and officer positions from...
The Onondaga County Legislature’s Ways & Means Committee recommended about $50 million in changes to County Executive Joanie Mahoney’s proposed 2011 spending plan Thursday — changes that legislative leaders said would avoid major property tax increases next year.
The committee recommended spending cuts that included selling the Sheriff’s Department helicopter, Air One, and eliminating 29 deputy and officer positions from the department’s patrol division. Fifteen of those positions are vacant already, but 14 others are filled and would require layoffs, representatives of the department's labor union said.
The patrol division currently has 228 deputies and officers, union officials said.
Under the committee's plan, the helicopter would be grounded on July 1 and sold for $1.8 million. Legislature Chairman James Rhinehart, R-Skaneateles, who attended the committee's meeting Thursday night, said the county could be served by the state police's helicopter, which is based at Hancock Airport, and by Mercy Flight Central, a nonprofit air medical services company that operates in the county.
Other cuts involved eliminating jobs in various county departments. But most of the cuts consisted of slashing spending on maintenance, capital projects and the purchase of equipment such as personal computers and vehicles for the Sheriff’s Department and other departments.
The panel also recommended that Pratt's Falls county park be closed and possibly turned over to the town of Pompey.
Not all of the changes to Mahoney’s budget would involve spending cuts, however. The committee recommended that the Legislature use $12 million from the general fund balance — the county’s reserve for unexpected expenses or revenue drops. The committee also simply raised estimates of how much money the county would collect in sales taxes, room occupancy taxes and other revenues next year.
Rhinehart said the use of fund balances was necessary to keep county property taxes from shooting way up in many of the county’s 19 towns. The county has about $120 million in fund balances spread across a number of departments, he said.
"I say if government has that much money, it took too much money from me in the first place," he said.
Mahoney, however, criticized the committee’s actions, saying the use of the county’s reserves and the use of "one-shot" rather than recurring expense reductions was "irresponsible" and will only make matters worse in 2012.
"Next year, when the money is gone, the spending is still going to be there," she said. "The Legislature can stand tough right now or they can duck for cover. It looks like they’re ducking for cover."
Mahoney said she hopes the full 19-member Legislature does not go along with many of the committee’s recommendations when it votes on the budget Oct. 12.
"I’m hoping when the full Legislature gets a look at this, they’ll back off," she said.
Administration officials and lawmakers said they did not know how many county jobs would need to be cut if the Legislature approves of the panel's recommendations. That will require an analysis over the next few days.
One official said it appeared that fewer than 100 layoffs would be necessary. Mahoney's budget called for five to 10 layoffs.
Mahoney’s proposed $1.2 billion budget would reduce the county’s property tax levy — the money it raises from property taxes — by $3.1 million, dropping it to $180.88 million.
However, most of the county’s suburban communities would see major increases in county property taxes under her budget because the county, in a move approved by the Legislature earlier this year, will start keeping most of its sales tax revenue next year rather than sharing it with local governments.
The Legislature plans to hold a public hearing on the committee's proposed spending plan at 7 p.m. next Thursday.
Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-3148.