SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Onondaga County is facing economic hardships. It has not received funding from the federal government to make up for the deficit caused by the coronavirus.
The county has spent $15 million fighting the virus and is at a $100,000 loss due to a collapse in the normal sources of revenue. David Knapp, chair of the Onondaga County Legislature, said the county is running out of options with its limited budget.
“We’ve cut about $30 million so far, but now we’re kind of getting down where there’s not much left we can cut,” he said.
Knapp said the county legislature has taken some steps to delay layoffs.
“We did a retirement incentive for some of our employees who were eligible to retire,” Knapp said. “We gave them a cash lump sum payment as well as some guarantees on their health coverage going forward. We had almost 200 employees take advantage of that, and we just had some natural turnover and a hiring freeze from the start.”
To further help with the deficit and prevent layoffs, Knapp said the county implemented a small tax on energy about a month ago. The tax, for most people, ended up being less than $5 per month.
“We actually put a sunset on that tax so that November 30, 2022 that tax goes away,” Knapp said.
Knapp said the legislature, County Executive Ryan McMahon and Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh have been advocating for help from the federal government.
“Unfortunately, the state is in the same situation that we are, so they are not in a position to help us,” Knapp said. “In fact, they’re probably going to cut us by about $20 million because they’re in the same boat we are. So, thats why we really need a little help from the federal government to get us over the hump. Otherwise, unfortunately, we’re probably going to be looking at some layoffs here at some point.”
Knapp said social service programs would be shielded from layoffs and budget cuts, but parks and the Onondaga County Department of Transportation could be some of the hardest impacted.
According to Knapp, politics is why Onondaga has not received funding.
“We did exactly what we were told to do by the federal government and the state government, yet we’re kind of being punished for it a little bit,” he said.
He said the government did give relief directly to counties, but only if they had 500,000 people or more. Since Onondaga County has about 481,000 people, the county’s money went to the State of New York and the state kept it.
Knapp said the legislature will continue to push for direct relief to counties.
“We’ve been talking to our local congressmen,” he said.
Knapp remains hopeful that relief will be delivered directly to Onondaga County. Until then, he said the county will continue to work hard to get the House and Senate to work together to pass relief plans.
