Legislators approve $99 million county budget, with 1.95% tax increase

Slowing sales tax growth, rising mandate costs strain the budget

ALBION – Orleans County legislators unanimously passed the 2025 county budget on Tuesday.

The budget represents $99,092,747 in total spending, a 7.1 percent increase that raises taxes by 1.95 percent.

Jack Welch, the county’s chief administrative officer and also the budget officer, said nine mandated programs are seeing a $2,003,938 increase in 2025 or a 10.5 percent jump to $21,060,228. That exceeds the county’s total tax levy of $19,639,000.

The “9 for 90” mandated programs used to consume 90 percent of the tax levy, but next year will be 107 percent.

Those mandates include:

• Medicaid, $8,845,064 – up 1.7%
• Public Assistance/ Safety Net, $2,974,100 – up 27.6%
• Child Welfare/Protection $2,259,557 – 2.9%
• Special Education, $1,006,696 – up 1.6%
• Indigent Defense, $749,690 – 6.9%
• Probation – $694,581, down 10.9%
• Mental Health – Law Expense § 730.30 (competency exams), $500,000 – up 1,000%
• Early Intervention, $318,681 – up 15.3%
• Pension, $3,711,859 – up 22.0%

Total: $21,060,228, or  $2,003,938 over 2024 budget

Another big expense for the county, health insurance, will see a 19.8 percent increase to $7.7 million.

“The true challenge of this expense is that nearly 24 percent of this cost is for one drug,” Welch said in his budget message. “As an experience-rated group, orphan drug expenses play a significant role in the calculation of health insurance premium rates by all health insurance companies.”

The budget increases the tax levy by $375,000 from the $19,264,000 for 2024. That increase keeps the county under the tax cap, Welch said.

The tax rate will drop by 66 cents per $1,000 of assessed property to $7.91 due to growth in the tax base through reassessments. Not all the towns pay the same tax rate because not all have completed recent town-wide reassessments to put them at full values. Towns that are considered under value by the state will pay higher tax rates to be determined just before the tax bills go out in January.

Sales tax helps offset property taxes, and sales tax has been rising significantly in recent years. However, this year it was $900,000 below the amount in 2023 for the first six months, but then saw an $800,000 jump in the third quarter.

“Accrued sales tax collections year-to-date are still below 2023,” Welch said. “This is the first time since 2016 we have experienced this. Residents have shifted their spending from taxable sales to sales that do not have a sales tax connected to essential goods like food and rent.”

Welch said the recent increase in sales tax has been consumed by state mandates which include the increased costs for the homeless crisis and the Mental Health Law expense Section 730.30 – competency exams to determine a defendant’s competency. The county has experienced big increases in homeless placements the past 30 months for temporary and emergency housing, Welch said.

The budget includes $10,925,755 in a capital plan for projects and equipment upgrades.

That includes the following departments:

Highway – $8,132,479

Peter Bilt 10-wheeler, $260,000; Rollers, $200,000; local bridge and culvert repairs, $200,000; two pickup trucks on lease, $22,104; Upper Holley and South Holley Road replace and overlay, $460,000; patch and seal county roads, $200,000; highway reconstruction, $2,464,280; Eagle Harbor Road culvert replacement design, $170,000; Eagle Harbor Road culvert replacement, $759,625; Gillette Road bridge replacement design, $289,270; bridge preventive maintenance, $1,809,300; Route 279 bridge replacement, $1,136,900; Lakeshore Road bridge design, $161,000.

Buildings and Grounds – $1,410,000

Public Safety Roof, $1,200,000; sewer lateral lining, $150,000; Mental Health and Clerk’s buildings, $50,000; Animal Control roof, $10,000.

Information Technology Services – $70,000

Firewall replacement, $70,000.

Sheriff’s Office – $1,313,276

Dispatcher Stations upgrade, $810,000; jail repairs, $200,000; Jail vests, $13,000; Axon Tasers lease in jail, $6,000; animal control leased truck, $15,000; fleet maintenance program 2022, $66,493; fleet maintenance program 2024, $52,958; fleet maintenance program 2025, $106,000; Tasers lease from 2024 to 2028, $43,825.

The county budget includes 445 full-time, 107 part-time and 163 seasonal positions across numerous programs and services. This is a decrease of 4 full-time positions and an increase of 10 part-time positions compared to 2024.

The county has struggled to fill some positions in the government. With that reality, plus the rise in costs for employee benefits, the county has begun changing the work week for employees from 35 hours per week to 37.5 hours per week – with a goal of 40 hours per week rather than hiring additional employees, Welch said.

The annual fee for solid waste and recycling service will increase $5 to $225. This fee will continue to support the e-waste collection efforts for county residents at three sites across Orleans County.