LOWVILLE — Lewis County's tentative 2009 budget would cut spending by 2.37 percent to $51.25 million.

However, by nearly eliminating the use of reserve funds to offset taxes, the spending plan would raise the tax levy by 11.9 percent, although the full-value tax rate would drop by 2.21 percent.

Spending in the proposed budget, excluding the Lewis County General Hospital fund, would drop by nearly $1.25 million, from $52,497,713 this year to $51,252,286.

However, the levy, or amount to be collected in taxes, would increase by $1.38 million, from $11,587,334 to $12,967,845.

Coupled with a 14.4 percent increase in the county's full taxable value from $1.5 billion to $1.71 billion, owing both to new construction and to rising assessments, the full-value tax rate would still drop to $7.57 per $1,000 of assessed value. Taxes on a house with a full value of $100,000 would decrease by $17, assuming the home's value stayed constant over the past year.

Overall use of reserve funds to offset taxes would drop from $2.36 million to $191,000. That includes $1.86 million used last year from the county fund balance — essentially the county's savings account — that wouldn't be used in the proposed budget.

"Do not touch the current fund balance," County Manager David H. Pendergast told legislators Tuesday in his inaugural budget address. "Although this 2009 budget has been a challenge, the 2010 budget may be much more formidable."

While the fund balance is now at a "solid $10 million," the county manager suggested those unappropriated reserves not be tapped in light of the financial uncertainty at the state and federal levels.

"The governor has called the state Legislature back into yet another special session to close a $1.2 billion deficit in this current 2008-2009 budget," Mr. Pendergast said. "In Albany, they're translating that closure to an up to 26 percent reduction in the state budget with unknown millions being transferred down to the counties to absorb. For Lewis County, that means mathematically a potential cut of $1.6 million for our current 2008 budget extending into 2009, due to the overlapping county and state fiscal year."

Including the county-owned hospital, the tentative budget would be $97.76 million, so the current fund balance would represent about 10.2 percent of total spending.

General fund spending would drop from $44.83 million to $43.86 million, while road funding would decrease from $5.96 million to $5.6 million and machinery funding would rise slightly from $1.71 million to $1.79 million.

Mr. Pendergast is proposing no new personnel, with a goal of reducing workers through attrition, no new equipment or vehicles and a reduction of costs for overtime and temporary workers. "This budget will establish capital accounts for unforeseen equipment failure, maintenance and repairs," he said.

The proposed budget essentially cuts funding to contractual agencies to 60 percent of their 2008 levels, with the exception of the Lewis County Soil and Water Conservation District and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Lewis County because of state-legislated obligation. "I call upon the contractual agencies to prepare and plan for further reductions in future budgets," Mr. Pendergast said.

Revenues are projected to drop by $455,382, from $38,548,823 to $38,093,441.

However, payment-in-lieu-of-taxes funding from the Maple Ridge Wind Farm is budgeted to increase from $1.73 million to $2.16 million.

The county this year actually received $2.17 million from the wind farm. However, since PILOT revenues are partly tied to the combined full-value tax rates of all involved taxing jurisdictions and most of them are dropping, a slight decrease in funding would be expected.

A public hearing on the tentative budget was set for 6 p.m. Nov. 12 in the third-floor courtroom in the new county courthouse.

Before then, the legislative Ways and Means Committee — along with any other interested legislators — will hold a few work sessions to more closely review the budget with department heads.

Mr. Pendergast in his budget address also made five recommendations: an immediate halt to new hires, an edict that all further spending from this year's budget require his approval, a review of all county operations to seek further consolidation of services, no use of fund balance and no adoption of a budget until after the Nov. 18 special session of the state Legislature.

County legislators voted 10-0 to accept those recommendations.

"When you offered me the position as county manager, I told you how humbled I was to be offered the position and the opportunity to return to Lewis County," Mr. Pendergast said. "There has been nothing more humbling in the past six months than the development of this 2009 tentative budget."