County comes in $165K under budget

TROY, N.Y. >> Rensselaer County ended 2016 more than $165,000 under budget, and leaders of the county Legislature attributed it to careful budgeting and reasonable spending cuts.

The county was able to achieve the savings by not filling vacant positions and holding off on equipment purchases, Stan Brownell, chairman of the Legislature, and Vice Chairman of Finance Phil Danaher said in a news release.

“We are proud that our focus of doing more with less while providing solid services have again generated a significant savings during the 2016 fiscal year,” said Brownell.

The savings will be earmarked to protect county taxpayers and improve needed services, with the Legislature to consider a resolution at its April 11 meeting to move the $166,319 surplus into the existing Tax Stabilization Fund. That fund has been used in recent years to reduce the amount of tax increases and recently to increase by $200,000 the amount of road repair and improvement work in 2017.

“These funds can be put to use to hold the line on taxes, protect services used by seniors, veterans and youths, or even expand the amount of road work done in a calendar year,” said Danaher.

The county has already seen another $800,000 in savings this year after the Legislature solicited new bids for the county’s insurance coverage and approved a new contract at its March meeting.