Chautauqua County Legislature holds its monthly meeting (October 28, 2026)
The Chautauqua County Legislature has approved the $330 million 2027 county budget by a vote of 10 to 9.
In the Legislature’s Audit & Control Committee, legislators amended County Executive PJ Wendel’s proposed budget to raise the tax levy by $1.8 million. This was accomplished by using less monies from the County’s undesignated fund balance. With the legislature’s approval Wednesday night, the new property tax rate will be $5.46 per $1,000 of assessed value. This is 71-cents lower than the tax rate in 2026, but 14-cents more than what Wendel had proposed in his budget. The new tax levy for 2027 will be $76.8 million.
Republican Legislator Fred Johnson stated he didn’t think the Legislature had been aggressive enough on cutting expenses, “We went into last year’s budget with a $2 million gap, unfavorable gap between revenue and expenses. That $2 million has turned into $7 million as we come to the end of ‘26, and now we’re going into 2027 budget, with approximately a $10 million negative gap revenues less than expenses.”
Republican Legislator Dalton Anthony said he would be voting no because he believed that the County should be offering a true 0% tax levy increase to taxpayers, “I have always been a strong advocate for maintaining a healthy fund balance. And, I believe the reserves we have today are a result of the difficult decisions and fiscal discipline that have brought us to where we are. Protecting that financial stability remains important to me, and at the same time, we continue to face financial pressures from both the state and federal governments. And, we have been warned at some point a tax increase may be unavoidable. And, that is why I believe we should make every reasonable effort to give our residents one more year of relief, while we have the opportunity to do so responsibly.”
Democratic Legislator Bob Bankowski made a motion to table the budget vote so as to have more time to work on it, but that failed 7-12 along party lines.
In the end, all Democrats and Republican Legislators Dalton Anthony and Fred Johnson voted against the budget, but Republicans had the votes needed to pass it and send to County Executive Wendel to be signed.
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