Budget

Budget Message

FROM: L. Matthew Landers, County Manager/Budget Officer

DATE: October 29, 2025

As Genesee County Manager, I am pleased to present the 2026 recommended budget for the Genesee County Legislature’s consideration. This budget ensures efficient and responsible funding for County government while making key investments necessary to continue delivering high-quality services to our residents. The recommended budget remains well under the New York State (NYS) tax cap, despite addressing numerous expensive state mandates over which the County has little control.

Crafting a balanced 2026 budget presented significant challenges, particularly with a $5 million deficit that emerged after receiving budget requests from all Department Heads. This deficit was eliminated through the diligent work of the Manager’s Office staff, who collaborated with each department to identify additional efficiencies and cost savings, with support from the Treasurer’s Office. These efforts helped deliver my sixth recommended budget as County Manager. Thanks to this hard work, the budget stays under the tax cap while meeting the needs of Genesee County residents.

To meet the challenge of keeping the net County support flat in the 2026 budget, departments were encouraged to think innovatively and find cost-effective solutions. Despite increases in New York State Retirement rates, health insurance premiums, inflation and rising vendor contracts, I am pleased that the majority of departments held the line on spending, which greatly contributed to keeping the budget under the tax cap. The County is raising the levy 40% or $439,254 lower than the allowable NYS levy increase.

Infrastructure and Capital Investments

A recurring theme in previous budget messages has been the significant infrastructure challenges facing Genesee County. While we still face challenges—such as Phase 3 of the water system, with an estimated cost of $150+ million—there have been notable successes. In 2024, we opened the new County Jail, marking the largest capital project in the County’s history. This facility now houses female inmates and provides a safer, more efficient environment to both inmates and correction officers. Additionally, the County completed its County-wide broadband project, connecting every address point to high-speed internet, a critical resource highlighted during the pandemic.

Nearing completion is the renovation of the front half of the Engine House building, which will house staff from the Public Defender’s Office and District Attorney’s Office. This multi-million dollar renovation was partially funded by NYS grants, allowing for the installation of a much needed ADA accessible elevator. In addition, there are planned upgrades to two additional County facilities in 2026, the Animal Shelter and Holland Land Office Museum (HLOM). The Animal Shelter renovation is being driven by mandated upgrades by NYS, which is also supplying a $450,000 grant to partially offset said improvements. The HLOM facelift is necessary after decades of deferred maintenance. Reserve funds have already been set aside to cover both capital projects staring in 2026.

2026 Budget Highlights

The recommended 2026 All Funds budget for Genesee County totals $205,083,508, which is $14,668,309 more than the 2025 adopted budget. The 2026 recommended General Fund (operating) budget totals $155,073,823, reflecting a $9,836,487 increase from 2025.

Key cost increases include:

• $1.7 million in medical and pharmacy costs for the County’s self-insurance plan
• $1.2 million for the operational costs of the new County Jail (besides medical and retirement)
• $850,000 increase in NYS Retirement contributions
• $400,000 for the Sheriff’s Office operational costs (besides medical and retirement)
• $450,000 for Mental Health Department operational costs (besides medical and retirement)
• $300,000 for IT maintenance cost increases
• $200,000 for sales tax distribution cost increases

However, we also benefitted from $3.7 million one-time surplus from the closure of the County Jail project, which legally must be directed towards jail debt payments. This allowed us to fund annual capital projects traditionally covered by the dedicated 1% sales tax proceeds.

I am proposing a 2.00% increase, amounting to $672,615, in the property tax levy, totaling $34,303,354. For the median residential household in Genesee County (assessed at $171,000), this amounts to an increase of $24.46 in property taxes. The average County property tax rate will decrease by 3.56%, from $7.57 to $7.30 per $1,000 of assessed value. As a result, the median residential household that did not have an assessment change from 2024, will see a net decrease of $46.17 in their County property tax.

The recommended budget includes $3,000,000 of unappropriated fund balance, an increase of $500,000 from the 2025 adopted County budget.

The 2026 recommended budget includes a continued commitment of increased funding for our roads and bridges infrastructure annually by $1 million. Past deferred maintenance on the County’s infrastructure has put the County in catch-up mode and the cracks are showing. This continued commitment of an extra $1 million is a big step in addressing the deferred maintenance of the County road and bridge infrastructure.

The County continues to make strategic investments in its workforce, which will result in even better service delivery to Genesee County residents. A large share of these investments in the 2026 recommended budget are being made in public safety. Two new Deputy Sheriff positions are being created to help minimize the disruption that occurs with the inevitability of employee turnover and the very lengthy turnaround time that comes with screening, hiring and training new law enforcement professionals. These positions are being funded from the consistently reliable two to three vacancies that the Sheriff’s Office has traditionally experienced. The expectation is that once these new hires are fully trained and in service, that the 2027 Sheriff’s Office budget will be able to realize a reduction in overtime costs. In addition to the two new Sheriff’s Deputies, the Jail is converting three of the Correction Officer positions to Senior Correction Officer positions. These position changes will move the County Jail away from needing to utilize Officer in Charge designations on occasion and ensure there is a Senior Correction Officer scheduled for every shift.

In addition to public safety personnel investments the County is investing in a newly created position which was recommended in several of the County’s Genesee 2050 Comprehensive Planning process, a Housing Development Officer. This position will be responsible for increasing and strengthening the County’s housing stock, as the latest completed housing study indicated that Genesee County needs to increase housing opportunities across all of its demographics. To minimize impacts to the County budget, this position will be funded from a reserve previously established for a Genesee County Land Bank. While the County has realized that a stand-alone rural County Land Bank may not be economical, this new position will lead an investigation into the possibility of a larger regional Land Bank that Genesee County could be a member.

The 2026 recommended budget continues to provide funding to local ambulance providers. This investment has allowed for the stabilization of Genesee County’s emergency medical response resources. These contracts have strengthen the capabilities of local providers, improved emergency response times for County residents, fulfilled the community needs and in turn avoided further action by the County to become a direct service provider.

Budget Challenges

While there were familiar challenges in this budget such as rising wages, health care and retirement costs, and costly state mandates, two major issues looming for the 2025 and future budgets are the new Genesee County jail and the challenge for Genesee County to keep water supply ahead of demand through the construction of phase three of the county-wide water system:

• NYS Retirement Cost Increases – These costs have risen significantly, with an average increase over all tiers exceeding 11%, resulting in an $850,000 overall increase in the 2026 budget.
• Health Insurance Cost Increases –Healthcare premiums are increasing by 18% in 2026, costing the County approximately $1.7 million.
• Wage Increases – Rising wages in every sector has made recruiting and retaining qualified and capable County employees more challenging. Recently enacted bargaining agreements with the County’s labor unions have well deserved increases for 2026. These increases help to address the need for the County to pay competitive wages to retain and attract quality employees, however this comes at a cost that has to be weighed against providing a quality service at an affordable cost to the public.
• Mandates – Approximately 99% of the 2026 recommended property tax levy is made up of State mandated expenditures to fund departments and programs such as Medicaid, Probation, the Jail, Public Defender’s Office, Assigned Counsel, Social Service programs, Mental Health, Early Intervention, 3-5 Preschool services, and various others.
• New Genesee County Jail – The largest capital project in County history has officially been completed with the projected all-in price tag of approximately $70 million. The new Genesee County Jail opened in spring of 2024 satisfying a long overdue need for a safer and secure environment. The debt service payments are approximately $3.5 million annually. In addition to the debt service, the 2026 operational increase to the Jail has been budgeted at approximately $1.5 million. Large cost drivers include medical, retirement, contracted medical costs, and inmate food costs.
• Genesee County Water System, Phase 2, 3 & 4 – Genesee County is nearing completion of the $25+ million phase 2 of the County-wide water system, and is quickly designing the $150 million+ phase 3 which should hopefully break ground in the next few years. Phase 3 includes bringing in enough water from Monroe County to close the City of Batavia water plant, which draws from a threatened source and has long outlived its useful life. However, before the plant comes off-line, millions more have to be invested to ensure water supply keeps up with demand until phase 3 is complete.
• Federal and State Impacts to County Budget – Recently enacted Federal legislation contains significant negative impacts to future State budgets which may have significant negative impacts on future County budgets. For the 2026 County budget, the recently enacted Federal legislation had some impacts, but they were manageable, costing the County approximately $200,000 out of the Social Services budget.

County Responses to Budget Challenges

The New York State Tax Cap penalizes Counties for enacting an override resulting in limited options for meeting budget challenges. Genesee County has a long history of doing more with less, sharing wherever possible, privatizing operations, deferring needed capital improvements, modestly (yet fairly) compensating employees, and providing virtually no post-employment benefits to staff. After years of cutting to the bone the following actions and revenue sources were available to close the gap for the 2026 recommended budget:

• Fund Balance Utilization – The 2026 recommended budget utilizes $3,000,000 of fund balance.
•  Reserve Utilization – The 2026 recommended budget utilizes approximately $1,047,000 from reserves established specifically to soften large increases in the Medical Fund.
• Raising the Tax Levy – The 2026 recommended budget raises the levy 2.00% in 2026, which continues Genesee County’s continued adherence to the New York State property tax cap.
• Budgeting Increased Interest Earnings – Relatively higher interest rates compared to historical levels, coupled with a stabilized Fund Balance and utilization of outside investment consultants have allowed the County to budget for an additional $600,000 in interest earnings in the 2026 recommended budget.
• Line by Line Review with New Perspective – For the fifth year in a row I was accompanied by the Deputy County Manager and Executive Assistant in every budget meeting, a process that initiated new ideas and resulted in savings in several departmental budgets. A deeper dive into individual budget lines resulted in significant budgetary savings when aggregated. We were also able to utilize greater sharing of resources between departments to capture more state aid and reduce the net county share in several cases.

In Closing

While the proposed budget reflects a responsible approach to meeting the needs of Genesee County, I recognize the impact on our citizens and businesses. My commitment as County Manager is to ensure the prudent use of resources, working closely with local governments, businesses, and community organizations to make sure the budget serves the best interests of all residents.

I extend special thanks to Vicky Muckle, Tammi Ferringer, and Kevin Andrews for their invaluable assistance in preparing this budget. I also appreciate the Legislature and Chairwoman Stein for their guidance and feedback during this process.

The 2026 budget is now before the Legislature for consideration and adoption. I look forward to continued discussions with Legislators and the pubic to ensure the budget reflects our community’s needs and priorities.

L. Matthew Landers

2026 Proposed Budget Book(PDF, 5MB)