MALONE — Franklin County officials reported a healthy fiscal outlook at a public hearing on the 2023 tentative budget Thursday afternoon at the courthouse in Malone. Public comments were limited on the spending plan, which leaves the tax levy unchanged from 2022 at $17,687,000.

A long-term goal of building a reserve that meets two months of operating costs for the county has been met with the preliminary budget, county manager Donna J. Kissane said, and this will help the county continue to move toward ultimate goals of improving the quality of life of county residents, maintaining financial stability and reducing the burden on taxpayers.

“It’s a tentative budget,” Kissane said at the start of the hearing. “Moving forward, the legislators have the opportunity to make adjustments.”

Kissane explained the budgeting process under her watch, which includes early meetings with department heads in mid-July and looking at five year trends in spending. Current considerations, including food, fuel and other costs which can rise and fall over time, also play a strong part in budgeting decisions.

“I just have to recognize the outstanding work (department heads) have done not only this year but for the past several years,” she said. “They’ve just done a phenomenal job looking at their spending, how they gain efficiencies, and how they can be good stewards of taxpayer money.”

Over the following several weeks, Kissane said, she and county treasurer and assistant budget director Fran Perry will work to ensure the budget can be balanced as responsibly as possible, which includes a strong look at actual revenue.

“We can’t pretend we’re going to get revenues that are never going to come to fruition,” Kissane said.

Total appropriations are expected to be $118,284,501 with revenue of $99,109,605 for a 0% increase in the tax levy.

“We were really committed to keeping the tax levy the same and having a zero increase for all of our taxpayers,” Kissane told attendees at the hearing. “This tentative budget absolutely achieved that goal.

She added that the zero increase was a direction from the Franklin County Legislature heading into the budgeting process, and said lawmakers have been involved throughout the budgeting process.

Perry explained that $1.25 million was used from the general fund to balance the tentative budget, and added that a general fund which came in at $1,830,358 in 2015 had ballooned to $14,398,023 by 2020 and doubled in 2021 to $27,709,002.

“Franklin County was in severe fiscal stress, and we had been for a few years,” Perry said. “One of the recommendations from the state to offset that fiscal stress was to build our fund balance.”

She said a healthy fund balance is imperative, as it helps the county meet unforeseen expenses throughout the year.

“We have to able to hold funds so that we’re not going to have to come back the next year and excessively tax the taxpayers,” Perry said. “We should be able to hedge for that by building this fund. Part of that is coming in under budget and trying to come up with new revenue sources.”

Another area of significant revenue increase is in sales tax collection, mostly due to online sales, Perry said. Sales tax collections in 2021 totaled $30,084,642, and by Sept. 26 of 2022 year-to-date sales tax collections added up to $20,193,736, which officials say is on track to beat last year’s collections.

Several individuals commented following Kissane and Perry’s presentation, including representatives from the Franklin County Economic Development Corp. and Industrial Development Agency.

Steve Erman, a board member on the EDC, complimented budget directors on their work, but questioned the absence of a line item in the budget related to his agency.

“This is a very tough process of budget making. To be able to bring a budget in staying below the tax cap is a great success,” Erman said. “My compliments on that.”

He said the EDC in past years had a contract with the county and was receiving $77,000 per year.

“It looks like that was zeroed out in the budget for 2023,” Erman said, adding that the EDC is involved in many positive actions in both the northern and southern ends of the county.

“The economic development program for Franklin County is being administered by the Economic Development Corp.,” Erman continued. “We’ve had the support of the county, we need the support of the county, and frankly, for the amount of work that’s being done, I believe that’s earned. I would like to see that money restored.”

Kissane responded, saying that the $77,700 item was an economic development grant from Jericho Wind Farms.

“It was a five-year grant, so we came to a contract that expires at the end of this year, and we actually paid one year beyond receiving that grant money,” Kissane said. She added that she believed through meetings with IDA CEO Jeremy S. Evans that this was understood. The IDA oversees the EDC.

“We had not forgotten you, we value the partnership we have with you,” Kissane said. “I think there certainly can be more discussion for us moving forward.”

“I appreciate what you’re saying, but I would say if you look at all of what’s happening in the county and the size of this budget overall, it’s worth coming up with a balance to increase the amount from $34,000 and to make it whole basically at the level we were doing last year,” Erman said. “I think that’s critically important to moving this county forward.”

“Moving forward, I think it’s critical that we have early conversations as a contract is coming to an end,” Kissane said.

Support for funding for the EDC also came from Legislator Paul Maroun, R-Tupper Lake, as well as EDC board members Justus Martin and Archie McKee. Martin is also a candidate for county legislature.

Jordanna Mallach, Harrietstown supervisor, requested more funding for the Lake Clear airport, and Kissane suggested tourism dollars be used for that purpose. Other requests came from representatives of the Clinton-Essex-Franklin library system, who asked for a 10% increase to the library’s budget.

Now that the public hearing has taken place, any further changes to the spending plan will require resolutions from the legislature, which is ultimately responsible for adopting the budget.