Yesterday Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli invited the media, sitting legislators and the public to a presentation where he unveiled the county’s proposed 2019 budget. The proposed budget can be found here.

In general, the budget and accompanying letter from Santulli paint a mixed picture for Chemung County. The budget calls for the 14th straight year without a tax increase — ostensibly a good thing — but does not seem to include ways to help many of the struggling municipalities, most notably the City of Elmira.

With respect to sales tax allocation, Santulli’s letter sets forth the county’s perspective of what happened as they tried to broker a new agreement, and states the proposed budget includes a new formula that is “consistent with the law”:

Only the media was permitted to ask questions at the presentation, and the budget alone does not appear (at least to me — please let me know if I missed something) to set forth what the new formula is. It simply states:

The letter from Santulli also outlines the tough fiscal chains imposed upon New York counties by Albany, and some positive local markers related to economic development and new projects including the medical school expected to open in Elmira.

The public is invited to participate in the budget process by attending any of the following meetings:

The Town of Elmira’s Board acted on its budget yesterday as well, passing a final version that calls for a 2.63% tax increase, a figure that is under New York’s property tax cap.

A summary of the budget is embedded below. It should be online at the Town of Elmira’s website, found here, soon.

-Christina Sonsire