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St. Lawrence County will use $1.6 million from tobacco settlement to pad fund balance

Posted 5/3/16

By JIMMY LAWTON CANTON -- St. Lawrence County will use a $1.6 million windfall of tobacco settlement funding to pad its unhealthy fund balance. On Monday legislators agreed to move $1.6 million to …

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St. Lawrence County will use $1.6 million from tobacco settlement to pad fund balance

Posted

By JIMMY LAWTON

CANTON -- St. Lawrence County will use a $1.6 million windfall of tobacco settlement funding to pad its unhealthy fund balance.

On Monday legislators agreed to move $1.6 million to the general fund. That brings the county about halfway to its goal of adding $3 million to the fund balance in this fiscal year.

New York State receives billions of dollars each year as part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. The county gets a portion of that money each year, but legislators were surprised when they got $3.28 million, about double the amount they expected and budgeted to receive.

When the news hit legislators during an April operations committee meeting, Madrid legislator Kevin Acres asked how much of the unexpected funding could be used to build fund balance.

At the time, Chairman John Burke questioned what impact moving the money into the county’s fund balance might have on operations, but Administrator Ruth Doyle stated that all of the additional funding could be put into fund balance without significantly impacting the county.

St. Lawrence County has been struggling to build cash on hand and has been forced to borrow millions of dollars each year since 2013 just to pay its bills.

Legislators blame late state reimbursement payments, declining sales tax and rising health care costs as major contributors to the problem.

The county borrowed $8.5 million in 2011, $12 million in 2012, and $10 million in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

In January, the county directed Doyle and department heads to come up with $3 million that can be moved into the fund balance, after Moody’s Investors Service downgrade of the county’s bond rating.

The county has also established a strategic planning committee to help find additional cost savings and potential revenue generation to bring more stability to the county’s finances.

In April, Doyle reported that the county has saved about $387,000 this year through delaying hires and eliminations through attrition. Legislators also discussed allocating that savings to the fund balance as well, but Doyle said doing so could put a squeeze on county operations.