BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

CANTON -- The county administrator’s tentative 2021 St. Lawrence County budget would raise the tax levy by 2.7%, under the state cap, and use a half-million dollars in fund balance.

The true value tax rate would be $8.19 to cover a $50,400,490 gap, County Administrator Ruth Doyle’s presentation said. Her plan would spend $249,620,478 (0.61% decrease from 2020) with $198,719,988 in revenue (1.14% decrease from 2020).

She discussed the tentative spending blueprint with the St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators during their Monday, Oct. 5 meeting.

The county administrator expects tax bills to go down, if the legislators pass her budget as written. That would range from a $4.77 decrease on taxes for $50,000 in assessment to $16.69 for $175,000 in assessment.

Doyle said “this has been and continues to be a very different kind of year.”

“Many of the challenges that emerged in 2020 are remaining for the foreseeable future,” she said.

Her presentation showed slides discussing challenges in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as working within “continuously evolving mandates and requirements,” making sure the county can be reimbursed for COVID expenses and “balancing program demands with financial unknowns.”

Doyle in her presentation said she expects fringe benefits to increase $2.7 million next year, “as well as a substantial increase in the 2020 projection for health insurance costs.”

She said that she’s planning for “equal to our expected revenue in 2020” for the 2021 budget, which includes sales tax, reductions in municipal aid and payments to a newly created hospital distress fund. Doyle also said she budgeted next year’s occupancy tax flat from this year.

The legislators are planning to hear from department heads at their Oct. 21 and 28 committee meetings, with a public hearing and budget adoption tentatively slated for their Nov. 4 full board meeting.