GENESEO, NY — At this time of year when county and town taxes are coming due, The County News has taken the opportunity interview Livingston County Administrator Ian Coyle on the subject of the 2010 county budget and its implications for property owning taxpayers. In 2010 the county tax rate has increased from $7.26 to $7.69 per assessed $1,000.

Taxes are going up six percent, the increase driven almost entirely by the county’s $22 million financing for its new jail. The average Livingston County homeowner, with a property assessed at $120,000, will be paying $50 more in county taxes this year.

Livingston County Sheriff John York has outspokenly proclaimed that the county’s current jail, built during 1982-84 by a tightwad Board of Supervisors, had inadequate capacity on the day it was opened.

In the ensuing two decades, the Sheriff patiently watched as the county erected its great government center building next door, remodeled and expanded its courthouse, built a vast service complex at Hampton Corners, and a state-of-the-art caregiving facility on Murray Hill — finally turning its attention to the long neglected jail in 2008.

The total jail project — construction of the new annex and rehabilitation of the existing building — is costing $28 million.

With $6 million set aside in advance, the county has borrowed the $22 million balance at three percent interest, lower than projected thanks to a bond rating upgrade, Coyle notes. Over the financing life of the jail, the upgrade will save the county close to $500,000.

“If we didn’t have the jail debt, we wouldn’t have had a tax levy impact. The levy would have remained flat,” Coyle asserts.

In spite of soaring (20 percent) healthcare plans and mandated state pension expenses, the 2010 county budget manages to hold the line on spending, paying out no more than in 2009 with the aforementioned exception of jail debt.

“Going up six percent in these economic times is not something we wanted to do,” Coyle concedes. “But we had to build the jail debt into the budget. Essentially, we took the brunt right now.”

Coming up with funding from other areas to feed the increasing pension and healthcare plans of about 700 fulltime and 300 parttime employees (400 associated with nursing care) was no mean feat, Coyle advises.

Internal capital upgrades were postponed, formerly funded positions (vacancies) were erased and, department-by-department, everyone tightened their belts. Fortunately, earlier planning has placed a ‘cushion’ over the county’s pension payment obligations, somewhat moderating the impact of the $40 billion loss in value experienced by the state pension fund.

Perhaps most remarkably, the 2010 austerity was accomplished in the aftermath of a significant decline in sales tax revenue. In 2008-09, for the first time in the history of Livingston County, sales tax revenues did not increase.

Instead, they declined — and declined substantially. Consumers spent about $40 million less on taxable merchandise, resulting in a $1 million loss for the county coffers. Until then, sales tax had grown an average of four percent every year.

“This was unprecedented. Every single year we have had growth in sales tax,” Coyle reports. “We saw a regression which we’ve never seen before, and, we hope, won’t see again.”

The 2010 budget anticipates the beginings of an economic recovery, or at least an abatement of the economic decline, projecting sales tax revenues the same as the previous period.

See complete story in our Jan. 28 print edition.