The Albany County Executive has released his 2017 budget proposal. WAMC's Capital Region Bureau Chief Dave Lucas spoke today with Dan McCoy about the $652-million dollar spending plan...
"It's been four years and nine months of turning the county around, and I said when I took over four years ago, we are gonna take every tree, pull it out of the ground, dust it off, replant it, rebuild the foundation, and really change the effective way that we do business in Albany County and stop treating it as a government, but treat it as a business."
There's good news for taxpayers in McCoy’s plan: no change in the tax rate, and an average homeowner with a $150,000 house should actually see a decrease in taxes. The budget does not make any cuts to programs or services and calls for creation of a Recreation Department that combines the existing rec bureau, hockey facility, rail trail and Lawson Lake. "We're increasing the rec bureau, we're starting to launch that program there and we're investing another $250,000 into the culture and economic development fund, which is for the land bank, which we've already committed well over $1.5 million over the last four years. That land bank really helps us with blight in the city of Albany and other areas in Albany County. The other thing we're doing is giving $250,000 for culture and economic development fund, and stay tuned because we'll have more to say about that.”
The proposed budget includes the creation of a $1.7 million Tax Stabilization reserve fund, which would be funded by the county’s share of licensing application fees paid by the Rivers Casino in Schenectady. "Throughout the year we'll get a bill and then things go up mid-year. We might get a bill for a million dollars or to offset taxes for 2018. We're gonna set that money aside, and that's what it's gonna be used for, it's gonna kinda be in the reserves, which is gonna help us going forward."
McCoy notes that county efforts to enhance fiscal stability have led to an upgrade in the State Comptroller’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring Report, which now places the county in the category of “no designation,” an upgrade from previous years. And then there's that $57.5 million dollars in reserves: "It's the highest its been probably in two decades. I think the last time we were in the 40's was in 1998. I take a lot of pride in that because we're not using gimmicks or one-shots. It’s easy to close your budget when you start using your reserves. But the reserves, and I'll remind your listeners, are there for when we hit a recession again, they're there for rainy days if we get that thousand-year storm a nd it comes to our county, it's there for a national disaster."
The budget now goes to the county legislature, which could adapt it as early as the first Monday in December. Albany County Legislature Chairman Sean Ward was not immediately available for comment.
