MONTICELLO – A “conservative”
2018 budget was adopted by the Sullivan County Legislature Thursday, with
little change to what County Manager Joshua Potosek presented in October.
The $226 million budget will raise the tax levy 2.3 percent, which is
under the tax cap.
The spending plan contains no layoffs, no raises and no service cuts.
One thing not in the budget is anticipated revenue from the Resorts World Casino, which opens in February.
“We’ve talked about somewhat of a transition year where we know there’s going to be new revenue coming; it’s kind of hard to forecast that,” Potosek said. “So this budget took a conservative approach on revenues, to kind of wait and see.”
Legislature Chairman Luis Alvarez said the full legislature gave the budget proposal a thorough review.
“All of us were behind the budget,” Alvarez said. “We discussed it, we studied it and we worked on it to make sure it was the right budget.”
During the brief special meeting, the legislature also adopted:
The 2018-2023 capital plan
$10 million in bonds for construction or reconstruction of bridges
$3.2 million in bonds for road reconstruction
$1.14 million in bonds for improvements to the county government center, a work in progress
$670,000 in bonds for purchase of construction and maintenance equipment.
$40,000 for a new playground at one of the County’s parks (location to be determined)
