The chair of the Chemung County Legislature proposed eliminating raises for elected county officials, including the county executive, treasurer, clerk, sheriff and legislators. Chairman Mark Margeson proposed this as an amendment to the $319 million county budget for 2025 during Monday night's budget committee meeting.
The money for the raises for the county officials would instead be used to increase the contingency account by the same amount. The full legislature approved the amendment during a meeting that was held directly after the budget committee meeting.
“So, in other words, the money is still in the budget, but it's put in contingency, and that primarily the elected officials are not going to get a raise for this year,” said Margeson. “That's the amendment of the proposed budget.”
It is unclear what the amount is that Margeson wants to reappropriate to the contingency account. WSKG reached out to Margeson and the county's budget director, Steven Hoover, and did not hear back in time for this report.
It is now up to the county executive to either adopt the proposed amendment or not, and to continue with the initial proposed budget as it was originally presented to the legislature.
Margeson said a budget will be adopted before the end of the calendar year.