Own land here?
You'll pay more taxes in 2007

The addition of security guards such as Garth Clark (left) and Bill Powers at the courthouse metal detector is among added expenses that have swelled Potter County's 2007 budget, resulting in a tax increase.

Property owners in Potter and Cameron counties will have to dig deeper to pay their real estate taxes in 2007. Boards of commissioners in both counties last week adopted operating budgets calling for higher taxes next year.

Taxes are going up in Potter County from 10.8 mills to 12.3 mills, applied to every property's assessed value. A mill is one-tenth of one percent.

In Cameron County, the increase is even more drastic, from 21 mills to a new rate of 25 mills.

With apologies to a half-dozen citizens who turned out to voice their objections, the Potter County Commissioners adopted their $6.2 million 2007 budget last Friday morning. Commissioners Ken Wingo and John Torok voted in favor. Commissioner Catherine Bowers was absent due to illness. She had previously voiced her support for the budget.

"This is where we are, as regrettable as it may be," Chairman Wingo said. "We have to pay the bills. There's no negotiating."

Commissioner Torok said he was proud of the fact that the current board has gradually balanced the county budget after starting with a $700,000 deficit.

Wingo attributed the tax hike to more expensive employees' health insurance premiums, rising utility costs and, especially, higher expenses for the criminal justice system.

The budget includes approximately $940,000 for operation of the county jail, where the inmate population has risen from an average of 18 per week to more than 40 per week. Prisoner medical and dental expenses must also be borne by the county, Wingo said.

Additionally, the state only covers 65 percent of District Attorney Dawn Fink's $148,000 annual salary. The county must also pay for an assistant district attorney and expanded hours for the public defender, Wingo pointed out.

Ken Comstock, a Roulette area farmer, was among those who asked the commissioners to find ways to trim the budget and avoid the tax hike.

Citing recent job losses and the impending shutdown of two major Time Warner Cable facilities in Coudersport, putting more than 500 people out of work, Comstock said, "Ominous signs all around us call for us to tighten our belt."

He pointed at a portrait of the Founding Fathers on the commissioners' office wall and surmised that those men never intended for tax money to be used services such as dental work for prisoners.

Another property owner, Otto Osgagh, expressed concern about the impact of tax increases on senior citizens and others with fixed incomes.

Torok and Wingo did point out that local taxing bodies will get some relief when the state legislature follows through with the tripling of payments made "in lieu of taxes" for state forest and game lands. Real estate taxes could also be reduced if lawmakers pass legislation authorizing counties to impose an earned income tax.

In Emporium, the Cameron County Commissioners also passed the 2007 budget by a 2- 0 vote. Commissioners Glen Fiebig and Patrick Rodgers voted in favor or the county's $6.78 million 2007 budget with the four-mill tax increase. Commissioner Tony Moscato was absent due to medical reasons.

Fiebig said the board had trimmed as many discretionary expenses as it could find.

"I went through this budget (and) I don't see any padding whatsoever," Fiebig said.

Rodgers concurred, adding, "We're between a rock and a hard place."

A 28% increase in health insurance costs for county employees, rising heating bills and under-funded state mandates are the main causes for higher taxes, the commissioners said. County employees are required, for the first time, to cover a portion of their health insurance premiums, but the county's costs are still rising, the commissioners said.

At their year-end meeting last Friday, the commissioners approved a 25 cents per-hour pay increase for most county employees.