County Legislature Approves Tax Cap Override, Prepares to Approve Slight Increase in Property Tax Rate

Chautauqua County executive PJ Wendel (left) presents his 2021 budget to the County Legislature during its Sept. 23, 2020 meeting in Mayville. 

MAYVILLE – The Chautauqua County Legislature voted Tuesday night to approve a tax cap override for the 2021 county budget.

Lawmakers voted unanimously during a special meeting on a local law that allows the county to override the cap on the 2021 tax levy.  The move was due in part to the state mandated “2% tax cap”, which calls for any increase in the tax levy over 2 percent to require at least a two-thirds majority vote by local lawmakers.

However, for 2021 the so-called “tax cap” is actually lower than 2 percent due to a lower rate of inflation. As a result, any tax levy increase over 1.56% for next year would require a tax cap override. But even without the lower rate of inflation, a tax cap override would be necessary for the county executive’s budget. That’s because acting County Executive P.J. Wendel is proposing a tax levy for next year of just over $66.4 million – a 3 percent increase from 2020.

Despite the tax levy increase, the proposed tax rate under Wendel’s budget would have actually seen a slight decrease of 5 cents per thousand assessed value.  However, last week the legislature’s Audit and Control committee had a lengthy meeting to review the budget and ultimately agreed to a revised spending plan that includes a slight adjustment to the tax rate. That adjustment would result in a new tax rate that is 3 cents higher than the current year’s rate – or $8.49 per thousand assessed value.

The amended budget recommendations from Audit and Control will be reviewed and acted on by the county legislature later this month.