ALBANY, N.Y.--Albany County legislators went home last week thinking they had voted "yes" to the proposed 2012 budget. But on Monday, County Executive Breslin vetoed it, forcing the legislature to hold a special meeting.
Wednesday night, the legislature voted to override Breslin's veto, keeping the property tax increase to eight percent.
Up until that vote, it was threatened to go up to 12 percent. Still, after the vote, some legislators believed the increase would have been the right move.
"I think the county executive has some very legitimate reasons in his budget veto message, about what's going to happen to the county's finances as we move forward," says legislator Christopher Higgins.
The vote was 27 to 7 in favor of overriding the veto, but some legislators say they have some real concerns about the adopted budget, that stem from what some believe are "over-estimations" of what the end of the year will bring to the county in sales tax revenue.
"We've been down this road before," says legislature chairman Dan McCoy. "We overestimated the sales tax, and it started our downfall of having a budget shortfall."
Right now the legislature has budgeted three million dollars in sales tax revenue for the fourth quarter, but won't know for sure until January.
Some say that is a risky move.
"This is really a vote about budgets that neither address the necessary spending cuts to bring the expenses in line with reasonable revenue projections," says legislator Richard Mendick.
In a statement, County Executive Michael Breslin says, "My proposed budget was very tightly drawn, much more so than in other years. The legislature's changes place services and fiscal stability at greater risk, and there is no room to account for the unknowns of the state budget and the economy."
But some legislators say the risk is worth taking for the taxpayer's sake.
"Our services are in tact, our tax payers get a break," says legislator Shawn Morse. "We'll just have to work harder next year to fix the problems that come along."
"The most important thing we can do in this budget is set the tax levy," adds Gary W. Domalewicz.
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