County Executive P.J. Wendel.

MAYVILLE – Like last year Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel is proposing to increase spending but still reduce the property tax rate.

Wednesday night, Wendel presented his proposed 2023 tentative budget. The entire budget is $207,364,119. Of that amount, $69,681,835 is the levy, the amount collected through local taxes.

His budget proposal calls for a property tax rate of $7.80 per $1,000 assessed value, which is 30 cents lower than the current $8.10 property tax rate.

The levy for 2022 is $66,912,293. The proposed levy for 2023, Wendel said, is 4.14% higher, “a relatively small increase in today’s inflationary economy.” He added that the increase in spending is due to contractual increases, unfunded state mandates, and an inflation rate of 8%.

Wendel said a “healthy 8.1% increase in property valuations” helped him propose the 30-cent tax decrease.

Wendel wants to use $4.5 million from the county’s fund balance. Of that amount, $3.6 million would be for capital projects, $600,000 would be used for one-time bonuses for CSEA, and $292,000 would be used to repay helicopter debt.

The goal of the county’s fund balance is to be between 5 and 15% of revenue. It’s currently at $29 million or 11.6%. Wendel said even with these one-time expenses, the fund balance will be “above the midpoint of our targeted range.”

Some of the key capital projects include new snowplow trucks, a new multi-use athletic facility at Jamestown Community College, along with improvements in roads, bridges, and other county infrastructure.