Emphasizing that the Genesee County Legislature has no intention of overriding the New York State property tax cap, County Manager Matt Landers this morning said he expects the tax rate for 2022 to decrease by 53 cents from last year’s figure.
“The rate as of right now, and the only reason the rate would go up if there is any kind of change to the assessments between now and when we finalize the budget in late November, is at $9.37 (per $1,000 of assessed value),” Landers said.
That’s down from the rate of $9.80 in 2021, a drop of about 4 ½ percent.
The tax levy, or the amount to be raised by taxes, is going from $31,451,727 to $32,130,246 – an increase of slightly more than 2 percent.
Landers pointed out that municipalities such as Genesee County can’t raise their tax levies by more than the 2 percent tax cap.
He said his office is finalizing the All Funds and General Fund spending plans, but indicated both will go up compared to 2021.
“I will have those numbers when I file the budget on Friday,” he said, indicating that his office will be issuing a press release tomorrow.
Genesee County is using $1.4 million of its unexpended fund balance in 2022, down from $2.3 million utilized in 2021.
Landers said the new Genesee County Jail – with groundbreaking set for next spring – is a key part of the 2022 budget.
“We don’t have any debt service in the 2022 budget because we’ll be borrowing for the jail in '22,” he said. “Debt service will come out in 2023.”
There are line items in next year’s budget, however, for four new corrections officers – positions that are part of a jail transition team required by the state Commission of Corrections to be in place prior to groundbreaking.
“We’ll pick four us our more experienced COs to work on that, and that’s all they work on,” Landers said. “Then, we’ll backfill and hire four positions that we create. These positions will be kept on with the new jail because there’s an expected staffing increase with the new county jail.”
The county is planning to spend about $70 million on a 184-bed jail on West Main Street Road, just east of County Building 2. The facility will include a backup E-911 Center.
Two full-time nurses will be on duty at the new jail, an upgrade from the current one full-time nurse and one part-time nurse, Landers said, and four new positions will be added at the highway department – two seasonal and two full-time positions – to focus on tree cutting.
“We’re going to dedicate a tree crew that will work year round, working on the backlog of trees that have been devastated by the ash borer,” Landers said. “Trees are in the right-of-way and need to be cleared for safety purposes.”
