Washington County aims to cut 20% tax jump

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

Washington County is facing about a 20% tax levy increase, Finance Chair Brian Campbell of Hartford tells The Chronicle.

That is more than the 10 to 15% he warned of in The Chronicle last month, before budget workshops began — but he says it is far less than the 40 or 45% increase that loomed after the initial round of budget meetings.

The 2025 tax levy was about $37,900,000. Mr. Campbell says that for 2026, the County was looking at a tax levy of $55,000,000 — about a $17 million increase.

Why the jump? The 2025 budget included $3.8-million applied from the county’s fund balance, which the Board did to avoid overriding the tax cap, Mr. Campbell says.

Money from the fund balance “just isn’t available this year,” he said.

Then there’s the $3.5 million in increased expenses at the Department of Social Services, as The Chronicle previously reported.

Fixed costs include $2.5 million more for health insurance and pension expenses, plus about $700,000 additional in technology maintenance agreements for software.

“That’s the bulk of it there,” Mr. Campbell said. “We’re in trouble. Our tax cap is so far in the rearview mirror, we can’t even see it. What do we do? That’s the $17 million question.”

“When things are good,” budget meetings between his committee and County department heads ‘‘go pretty swiftly. Nobody says much,” Mr. Campbell said.

Faced with dire circumstances this year, “It was the best budget meetings we ever had. My gosh, department heads were engaged. Supervisors were engaged. I haven’t seen this in my 18 years at the County. They took lines as small as $15 down” — dropping the initial budget by about $10 million so far.

Public hearings: In case counties exceed tax cap

Both the Warren and Washington County Boards of Supervisors will conduct public hearings this Friday, Oct. 17, at 10 a.m. at their respective municipal centers on authorization to exceed the New York State tax cap of about 2.5%, the limit property tax can be raised before public hearings and a vote on the increase must take place.

Kevin Geraghty of Warrensburg, Chair of the County Board of Supervisors, tells The Chronicle, that setting a hearing “does not mean we are going to over-run the Tax Cap.”

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