NORWICH – The Chenango County Board of Supervisors met this morning after press time and no doubt took a first crack at cutting back or finding additional revenue for the draft 2011 budget of $84.1 million.
The proposed budget is a 4.1 percent increase over last year’s spending plan. Chenango County Treasurer William B. Evans has recommended using almost $3.7 million in reserves, and the resulting levy – $23 million – calls for an average of $12.73 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Of all the measures discussed in committee meetings leading up to today’s presentation – including privatization of services and the consolidation of departments – perhaps the most controversial was the suggestion of dissolving the county highway department.
Finance Committee Vice Chairman Dennis Brown, D-Pharsalia, broached the possibility at the committee’s final budgeting session a week ago. He suggested contracting with the towns to service and maintain the county’s roads and bridges and plow them in the winter.
While the idea was met with much skepticism, particularly from Greene Supervisor Jack Cook, who said, “It won’t happen,” conversations about improving cooperation with the towns ensued.
“It’s a fact that some towns don’t want to plow the county’s roads, even when they are driving over them,” said Wayne Outwater, R-Lincklaen. “We just put our plow down when going out on our roads and going on county roads to get there.”
The county highway department may not be able to reach towns in the far-flung regions of the county in a timely manner, and cooperative agreements with them have been working, said Public Works Director Randy Gibbon. However, he said, “Not everyone is buying into it.”
“We have some roads that are in three to five townships. We need to get them all (the towns) on board instead of our doing it,” he said.
Finance Committee Chairman Lawrence Wilcox said Gibbon had created various models for service delivery that would not only limit the county’s responsibility, but could help towns save money.
German Supervisor Rich Schlag suggested a meeting of highway superintendents to discuss how small towns could work more cooperatively with the county.
“Our problem is we have dirt roads. We would have to stockpile the salt and sand somewhere to do the county’s roads until we have paved roads,” he said.
Outwater said he hoped the county could “start rolling the ball to get some of these things identified and worked on early next year.”
Evans said, “I hope we talk about things that fundamentally change the structure.”
Evans recommended “the theory” of creating a dedicated sales tax to fund the highway department instead of going back every year to property tax payers for increases.
“At some point we’re going to run out of people we can turn to for property taxes,” he said. “Property taxes are getting more difficult for people with less income to pay.”
Gibbon said cuts in recent years to the Public Works Department “have really hurt us,” and taking funding for much needed new equipment away would “really kill the department.”
Cook said the county had 10 to 12 year old trucks on the roads, and pointed to a 1955 Gradall that was recently repaired with parts located in a scrap yard in Ohio.
“Chenango County’s got nothing but junk equipment,” he said.
Pitcher Supervisor Jeffrey Blanchard suggested combing through every department for opportunities to privatize and consolidate.