County administrator says 6 factors causing $6 million in increases in budget for 2025

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 23 October 2024 at 4:46 pm

Jack Welch

ALBION – Orleans County officials are trying to close a $6 million budget gap for 2025, with six factors causing $5.97 million in increases.

The 2024 budget, approved last November, totaled $92,494,994 budget, and that resulted in a tax levy increase of 3.25 percent or $607,000 to $19,264,000.

Jack Welch, the county’s chief administrative officer and budget officer, will file a tentative budget by Nov. 15. The spending plan faces some tough challenges, he said during Tuesday’s Legislature meeting.

He listed six main culprits:

Health insurance is estimated to increase 20%, by another $1.4 million.
NYS retirement is estimated to increase 12%, by another $360,000
Public Safety Building roof repair at $1.2 million
Social services up by 12%, another $1.7 million. That include $688,000 more for temporary homelessness in Safety Net, a 42% increase
Mental Health Law expense (Section 730.30 – when a defendant is unfit for trial) is estimated to increase by 1,000% or $500,000
Public Safety Dispatch consoles to be replaced at $810,000

Welch said he is particularly worried about the continued rise in costs for the temporarily homeless.

“The Public Assistance/Safety Net expense is related to our Emergency Declaration for Temporary Homelessness we have had since May 2023,” Welch said. “For last month, our out-of-county placement is 357 percent over July 2022. Total temporary homeless placements are 169 percent over July 2022. This trend does not show any sign of subsiding and is not unique to Orleans County.”

Rising sales tax revenue have helped the county in recent years to offset some rising expenses, but so far in 2024 the sales tax is behind the 2023 year-to-date levels.

“We were concerned about a flattening of sales tax revenue, but a decrease in alarming,” Welch said. “The last time the county experienced sales tax revenue below the prior year was in 2016.”