Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo released her first county budget proposal on Tuesday night.
The budget holds the property tax rate flat at $8.99 per thousand of full value.
The spending plan totals just under $1.19 billion an increase of .9 percent from the budget adopted last year, which Dinolfo says is an increase well below the rate of inflation.
Dinolfo says that mandated expenses make up 85 percent of her budget. She says the 2017 spending plan closes a nearly $25 million budget gap using a combination of savings and non-tax revenues. That includes money saved by dissolving three Local Development Corporations.
The county executive also says her budget establishes accountability by some formatting changes, doing things like reclassifying several positions.
Dinolfo says for the first time in 14 years the county workforce will not see any layoffs. A couple of vacant positions will be cut.
She also says that her spending plan reduces a structural deficit by just over $3 million.
The Democratic minority in the county legislature released a statement saying that they still want to comb through the proposed budget. But minority leader Cindy Kaleh says every year they hear that the county administration is holding the line on taxes, but costs for taxpayers seem to being going up each year.
The budget goes through various legislative committees before a final vote in December.
