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MAYVILLE - After about 17 hours of budget review, the legislative committee that oversees county finances is recommending using less reserves, increasing the levy, and not cutting the tax rate as much as proposed by the county executive.
All six of the county legislature committees participated in the budget review process last week. While each committee focused on their specific area (public safety, human services, etc.), the Audit and Control Committee attended each review session and then had its own discussion on the budget.
Dan Pavlock, R-Ellington, serves as the chairman of Audit and Control.
County Executive PJ Wendel's proposed budget kept the levy, the amount raised by taxes, flat. The overall budget is $330 million, while the levy was just under $75 million. That produced a property tax rate of $5.32 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
If adopted at that rate, it would be the lowest tax rate since 1975. This year's property tax rate is $6.17.
At the same time, Wendel proposed using a significant portion of the county's reserves, or unobligated fund balance.
According to county Budget Director Jennifer Swanson, at the beginning of 2026, the county's fund balance was around $35.5 million.
Swanson said Wendel had proposed using about $12.8 million in "various reserves." About $11.5 million was from the unobligated fund balance.
Pavlock said the Audit and Control Committee members were uncomfortable using that much of the fund balance. "We had reservations of spending so much of it. We didn't want to use so much unobligated fund balance this year because it sets us up for a harder budget next year," he said.
Pavlock added that the committee is also concerned about cuts to the SNAP program at the federal level, which may be pushed down to counties to cover.
"It could hit the budget in 2027; it's really hard to say," Pavlock said.
Pavlock said the committee wrestled with various proposals, including laying off employees, cutting services, not funding things like Chautauqua Lake, or increasing the tax levy.
"We chose to continue on with our current workforce and not cut services. We chose to keep those (lake) items funded, so we can see the results of that funding," he said. "We looked at our revenues. We felt we were very precise in our calculations on our expected sales tax revenues. We thought we were good on all of our forecasts ... We don't want to over-inflate any of those just to try to close the gap and not be able to realize it during the year, so we want to be accurate."
In the end the majority of the committee decided it was best to increase the levy.
Swanson said the Audit and Control's proposed tax levy is about $76.8 million, which is an increase of $1.8 million, which is up 2.47%.
If approved, this would set the county property tax rate at $5.46 per $1,000 assessed valuation. That is 14 cents higher than Wendel proposed, but still 71 cents less than the current year.
"We felt that was still a significant reduction," Pavlock said.
According to Swanson, the Audit and Control Committee's budget uses just under $10 million of various reserve funds, including $8.8 million unobligated fund balance.
Along with Pavlock, the Audit and Control Committee is made up of Bob Scudder, R-Fredonia; Tom Nelson, D-Jamestown; Fred Johnson, R-Westfield; and Dalton Anthony, R-Frewsburg.
When the time came to vote on the changes proposed by Audit and Control, Johnson voted no, stating "I don't think we cut enough."
While the change in the fund balance was the biggest adjustment, Pavlock said there were other changes made as well, including purchasing some new CHQ Transit buses which are mostly funded by the state and federal government, as well as reducing the salt budget, or finding some new grant opportunities.
Pavlock said fuel costs are probably the biggest increase for 2027.
The new Audit and Control budget will be reviewed by the various legislature committees starting Monday.
A final budget vote is expected to take place at the legislature's next meeting which is set for Oct. 28.