NORWICH – Chenango County is currently one of four counties in New York that can claim to be debt-free, according to data interpreted from the state comptroller’s office.
The last remaining check, in the amount of $225,000 owed on borrowed money for building the $3 million solid waste landfill in Pharsalia back in the mid 1990s, was written last May. There’s been a tone of celebration within committee and board meetings ever since.
Upon learning Chenango was among a small, prestigious group of fiscally-sound counties, Board of Supervisors Chairman Lawrence Wilcox, R-Oxford, said, “It’s certainly a proud moment. It speaks very well for the past boards of supervisors and treasurer (William E. Evans, who served from 1986 to 2010) and the department heads and our employees who put us in that shape. We are team players at the county level.”
Treasurer William C. Craine, who came on board in 2011, takes no credit for the Board of Supervisors’ fiscal prudence that led to its debt-free stature. “Those wheels were spinning long before I came into office,” he said. “It’s really a feather in the cap for the county.”
But when asked how the county’s excellent fiscal health could be achieved when juxtaposed with the fact that its property owners are the 36th highest taxed in the nation, Wilcox said, “Taxpayers are really hurting, and you can thank the people in Albany who keep giving us mandates. But it’s not miraculous; our status is based on sound, good fiscal management and control.”
“Each year we do the same job with a little bit less, whether it be fewer people or less expenditures,” he said.
High property taxes have no doubt contributed to the rising number of home foreclosures and possibly the county’s population decline over the past decade. From 2006 to 2012, there have been 289 foreclosures. The U.S. Census found the county lost about 1,000 people from 2000 to 2010.
The county government has a strong record of breaking even or profiting over time from its yearly tax sales of parcels in arrears. The parcels up for bid have been in arrears for at least three years.
The Pharsalia Landfill has three waste cells. A fourth cell, estimated to cost $2 million, is scheduled to be developed in 2014 or 2015. County budgeters have set aside more than $1 million in new cell development and have more than $2.5 million in reserve for cells closure accounts. Craine said, “We are hoping to see our way through all of those things without borrowing any money.”
“The county seems to be able to handle their debt load prudently,” said Brian Butcher, deputy press secretary for New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
The other debt-free counties, as of Nov. 1, are Columbia, Hamilton and Schuyler. The following counties currently have less than $10 million in outstanding debt: Franklin, Fulton, Herkimer, Schoharie and Washington; the rest are carrying debt in the double and triple digits. Nassau County, on Long Island, has $4 billion in debt outstanding.