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The Herkimer Conference of Mayors recently appealed to the county for more sales tax revenues, calling for reinstatement of a formula that would share the 1 percent in sales tax distribution the county withholds each quarter.
County officials during a Finance Committee meeting on Friday decided to officially reject the request.
Legislator Dennis Korce (R-District 14) said there is one reason the county is unable to share the 1 percent: Medicaid.
The county originally split the 1 percent with the municipalities, but the burden to cover the local share of the Medicaid program made it impossible to continue sharing. “We shared it as long as we could,” Korce said.
Starting in 2002, the increases in Medicaid expenses resulted in the county tax levy going “hideously out of control,” he argued.
A 6 percent increase in the tax levy in both 2002 and 2003 was followed by a 10.4 percent increase in 2004 and a 16.5 percent jump in 2005, according to Korce. The county was forced to designate the 1 percent to stabilize its tax levy, he said.
The townships have nothing in their budgets that can compare to this kind of burden, Korce said.
While disappointed in the county’s decision, village of Ilion Mayor Mark Cushman, the conference of mayors’ president, said he recognizes that the county has obligations, such as Medicaid, that villages don’t.
But, “Regardless of the level of government, all of us have to start looking at different ways to do business,” he said in a phone interview, referring to the rapid changes in the economy.
Cushman did say the sales tax issue does lend itself to the county and municipalities eventually pushing back against the state’s “un-funded mandates and their adverse trickle down effects.”
Officials have said the Medicaid expense to the county in 2009 and 2010, even with $1.9 million in federal stimulus funding to offset the burden, is estimated at $11 million. And preliminary estimates for 2011 have the local share jumping to over $13.2 million.
Korce has also said over $235,000 a week is wired electronically to the state, and Medicaid is the biggest expense in the entire county budget.
The Herkimer Conference of Mayors recently appealed to the county for more sales tax revenues, calling for reinstatement of a formula that would share the 1 percent in sales tax distribution the county withholds each quarter.
County officials during a Finance Committee meeting on Friday decided to officially reject the request.
Legislator Dennis Korce (R-District 14) said there is one reason the county is unable to share the 1 percent: Medicaid.
The county originally split the 1 percent with the municipalities, but the burden to cover the local share of the Medicaid program made it impossible to continue sharing. “We shared it as long as we could,” Korce said.
Starting in 2002, the increases in Medicaid expenses resulted in the county tax levy going “hideously out of control,” he argued.
A 6 percent increase in the tax levy in both 2002 and 2003 was followed by a 10.4 percent increase in 2004 and a 16.5 percent jump in 2005, according to Korce. The county was forced to designate the 1 percent to stabilize its tax levy, he said.
The townships have nothing in their budgets that can compare to this kind of burden, Korce said.
While disappointed in the county’s decision, village of Ilion Mayor Mark Cushman, the conference of mayors’ president, said he recognizes that the county has obligations, such as Medicaid, that villages don’t.
But, “Regardless of the level of government, all of us have to start looking at different ways to do business,” he said in a phone interview, referring to the rapid changes in the economy.
Cushman did say the sales tax issue does lend itself to the county and municipalities eventually pushing back against the state’s “un-funded mandates and their adverse trickle down effects.”
Officials have said the Medicaid expense to the county in 2009 and 2010, even with $1.9 million in federal stimulus funding to offset the burden, is estimated at $11 million. And preliminary estimates for 2011 have the local share jumping to over $13.2 million.
Korce has also said over $235,000 a week is wired electronically to the state, and Medicaid is the biggest expense in the entire county budget.
