The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the Chautauqua County Planning and Economic Development and Industrial Development Agency to reduce its spending plan for this current year.

During this week’s Planning and Economic Development Committee meeting, Mark Geise, the chief executive officer of the county IDA and the deputy county executive for economic development, discussed cuts his department has made in recent weeks.

“Planning and Development, I think was one of the only, if not the only, department to comply with the 15 percent reduction. We did that and it was very painful,” he said to committee members.

Geise noted they are working with more than 30 projects, all which were cut in some way.

The CCIDA Business and Economic Development and Promotion budgeted $101,952 in 2020, which was reduced to $84,110.

The CCIDA/JCC Small Business Development Center Business Assistance budget went from $59,155 to $52,668.

The JCC Small Business Development Center Business assistance budget went from $34,658 to $28,592.

Cornell Cooperative Extension had its budget of $285,328 reduced to $235,395. Geise noted they work with farmers and the county 4-H system.

The Chautauqua County Library System had its budget cut from $108,300 to $89,347.

The county Soil and Water had its budget cut from $100,000 to $82,500.

The Chautauqua County Fairgrounds budget went from $6,637 to $0 since the county fair has been canceled for 2020.

The Planning and Development also oversees the 3 percent occupancy tax. All those organizations that receive funding were reduced as well.

Those included:

The Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau which went from $550,000 in 2020 to $434,500.

The CCIDA Tourism Business and Destination Development and promotion went from $80,000 to $63,200.

The snowmobile trail maintenance went from $20,000 to $15,800.

The Fenton Historical Center in Jamestown went from $10,000 to $7,900.

The Historical Society of Dunkirk went from $3,000 to $2,370.

The United Arts Appeal went from $27,500 to $21,725.

The Chautauqua County Historical Society went from $6,500 to $5,775.

The National Comedy Center went from $52,000 to $41,080.

The Grape Discovery Center went from $15,000 to $3,150.

The Gran Fondo bicycle run went from $5,000 to $3,950.

The North County Shoreline Event Fund, also known as the Dunkirk boat race, had its budget of $20,000 eliminated, since the race has been canceled.

Geise noted there were others as well. “A number of them … canceled their events so all of that funding will be returned to the budget,” he said.

On a different topic, Geise shared that the CCIDA took hundreds of calls during COVID-19 from local businesses looking for loan assistance. “We developed a working capital loan program of $250,000 that we put together in a week and had all the money out the door to 25 different businesses in four weeks,” he said.

Committee Chairman Mark Odell, R-Brocton, thanked Geise for his presentation and said that for next year, the committee needs to look at ways to maximize funds, particularly when it comes to matching dollars. “I know in this first round, we gave everyone an equal haircut, an equal shave. I think looking forward, it behooves us to look for opportunities where we can get maximum leverage of dollars,” he said.