ALBANY COUNTY — Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy’s proposed $847 million budget features more services and lower taxes, which he attributed to creative budgeting, and specifically different partnerships that allow the county to keep or expand services in an efficient way. 

However, he also complained, as he did last year, that unfunded mandates handed down from the state and federal governments could end what would so far be an 11-year streak of tax decreases. 

“It’s getting to a breaking point where I almost have to raise taxes just to pay for the unfunded mandates,” he told The Enterprise. “That’s what’s unfair and that’s what has me mad because this year was tough, and if it wasn’t for some of the stuff that we did in the budget beforehand, I would be raising taxes instead of lowering taxes again.” 

McCoy said unfunded mandates make up 60 percent of the county’s budget, and a list of the top 15 most expensive mandates shared by county spokeswoman Mary Rozak show that the estimated cost of those mandates this year — $157 million — is up 18 percent from 2023, when they cost $133 million.

Some of those mandates include Medicaid (estimated at $70.6 million), child welfare ($5.6 million), probation ($9.4 million), and competency restoration for people who are accused of a crime but are considered unfit to stand trial ($3 million).

McCoy said that state representatives “go out in the neighborhoods and they tell everyone how they’re fighting for us … but they don’t talk about all the unfunded mandates.” 

Budget overview

Overall, the proposed $847 million budget has spending up 3 percent from this year’s $822 million budget, with the effective tax rate dropping from $2.84 per $1,000 in assessed value to $2.73 — a roughly 3.9 percent decrease. 

McCoy highlighted the county’s partnership with Health Solutions Insurance Inc. since that is expected to save the county $4.6 million next year. 

“It’s not sexy to talk about — it’s like infrastructure, sewers, stuff like that — but we look at every contract that we do in the county and we see the best price we can get for people while still getting the best product and not compromising any of that,” he said. 

On the expenditure side, McCoy highlighted the daycare program, Little Sprouts, for the county’s nursing-home employees, which allows those employees making $51,000 or less to receive free daycare for their children, while employees making more than that get 75 percent off.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, “we lost a lot of women in the workforce who have not come back” because childcare was too expensive.

McCoy called the daycare a great recruitment tool, and added that the county has also expanded its health benefits for employees, such as by allowing spouses of deceased workers to remain on the deceased worker’s health plan. 

No EMS district

As The Enterprise reported last week, there’s no relief this year for the handful of municipalities in the county that were hoping to get a special district set up to fund emergency medical services through the county budget. 

McCoy told the newspaper this week that, until state legislation is passed, there’s nothing the county can do on that front. 

“How can I budget something that the state didn’t pass?” he said.

Under the current state law, McCoy said that he “can’t just pick out certain places and say, ‘Hey, you’re just going to pay taxes here.’ It has to be county-wide.”

Assemblyman Steve Otis, who sponsored the state legislation that would give the county authority to set up such a district for its ambulance service, among other things, told The Enterprise that the bill is intended to give municipalities across the state more flexibility in setting up adequate EMS programs.

“The bill respects the variety of ways that exist around the state and is meant to address a shortage of services and diminishing response times in some areas,” he said. “The goal of the legislation is where things are working well, entities should be able to continue the way they’re functioning, [and] where there needs to be improvement, to give a variety of options by which municipalities, or groups of municipalities or counties, can set up programs they think would best serve them.” 

Otis said the bill is still being fine-tuned after “a lot of work” was done at the end of the most recent legislative session, and that municipalities can either seek special legislation that’s specific to their needs, or “see what happens at the beginning of the next legislative session with our legislation, which may solve the problems of needing special legislation.”

Assemblyman John McDonald told The Enterprise this week that the statewide bill had actually stemmed from an early attempt he was making to draft legislation specific to Albany County.

He was drafting a bill to allow for the county’s special district, he said, but found that other lawmakers’ appetites were for a statewide bill.

“It was more of a discussion about saying, well, it’s not just Albany County, so let’s work on a statewide package,” he said.