ALBANY COUNTY — With the same overall tax levy as last year, the $597 million budget proposed by county Executive Daniel McCoy avoids the controversial tax increases and nursing home debates of previous years.

With growing sales-tax projections, workforce trimming, and savings through union negotiations, the spending plan’s halt on tax increases answers a drumbeat McCoy said he heard listening to constituents this year.

The legislature will weigh in next month, with approval slated for December.

If passed with its flat levy of $89.6 million, this budget would be the second for the county that met the tax cap set by the state on levy increases, and it would comply with the state offer of a rebate to taxpayers in municipalities with levies under the limit. McCoy's previous plan totaled $574 million.

State aid is expected to contribute roughly $74 million, and federal aid roughly $61 million.

Less than a quarter of the budget is directly under county control, McCoy said, noting the pressure caused by state requirements with no funding.

A large share of that county-controlled spending has been the county’s nursing home, which McCoy pushed to privatize in 2013, but compromised with the legislature to form a Local Development Corporation to manage the facility. The LDC hasn’t yet been approved by the state.

The 2015 spending plan anticipates the nursing home will be subsidized by the county with $6.3 million. The savings of $4.2 million comes from changes in union contracts, which reduced overtime and hours but kept the same salary schedule, and accurate recording of what services are given.

While the nursing home is undergoing renovations, including a new roof, McCoy said the facility’s maintenance or replacement would continue to challenge efforts to keep the county’s cost below $5 million. He plans to use an energy performance evaluation and possibly solar panels to cut costs there and at other county buildings.

When two county nursing homes were consolidated to just 250 beds in 2008, McCoy said, the staff-to-patient ratio got worse.

The fate of the facility was the centerpiece of McCoy’s 2014 proposal, giving the legislature half of a year to form an LDC.

“We are definitely heading in the right direction, but, until we are in a position of basically making it self-sufficient, we need to look to see if there’s anything we can do,” said Richard Mendick, a Republican legislator on the Audit and Finance Committee who favored leasing the facility to a private company.

Keeping the tax levy flat, the contracts settled by McCoy’s administration include essentially no raises in 2015. The additional costs of those agreements to the county, including salaries and benefits, are 2 percent in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Without state and federal funds for the Community Health Worker Program so far, McCoy’s budget proposal reflects only partial support for it, according to the executive budget document. The Department of Health program targets infant mortality and helps low-income families and mothers find medical help and meet basic needs.

The spending plan counts on growing revenues.

The county’s largest single revenue source is from sales tax, which is projected to be more than $252 million next year. Roughly 40 percent of that is distributed to local municipalities.

The sales-tax revenue was expected to grow more slowly, but the current budget proposal forecasts a 2.5-percent jump, related to demand in the local economy.

The executive’s plan anticipates no deficit in 2015. In the following two years, it projects a deficit of more than $400,000, then almost $1.5 million in 2018.

The projected fund balance will be $42 million in 2015.

The 2014 budget increased the tax levy by 1.6 percent, meeting the cap. In 2013, the levy went up 7.6 percent, which required a formal resolution to override the tax cap. In 2012, the increase was 8.7 percent.

“It’s not something I’ve seen in my seven years as a legislator,” said Mendick, the deputy minority leader, of the flat levy. He replaced Christine Benedict in the post earlier this month.

The budget pleases Republicans who have been conservative on tax increases at this point, he said, and had no immediate criticisms of the plan. But, he went on, that won’t be determined until the Audit and Finance Committee combs through the plan and learns about line-by-line changes.

“Often just shifting dollars from one account to another, but you never know until you bring the department head in and they have an opportunity to explain,” said Mendick.

Economic incubator funding under the county executive’s fund, for example, was moved to the Department of Economic Development, Conservation and Planning, according to Mary Rozak, the executive’s spokeswoman. McCoy’s salary appropriation would remain the same at $125,559.

An apparently large $1 million appropriation for demolition of unsafe buildings, compared to the $270,000 spent in 2013, includes $500,000 for the county’s new land bank.

The largest share of the proposed budget appropriations, at $231 million, goes for economic assistance, followed by $151 million for general government. Public safety accounts for $82 million, followed by health care for $37 million, education for $24 million, and transportation for $15 million.

After a public hearing, the county legislature will recommend additions or deletions by Nov. 20, with possible executive objections and approval by the legislature in December.

A public hearing on the tentative budget is scheduled for Oct. 28 at 7:15 p.m. inside the legislative chambers at the Albany County Courthouse on Eagle Street in Albany.