JOHNSTOWN - Fulton County government's tentative 2010 budget - due to be given to the Board of Supervisors Nov. 9 - will carry an average county property tax rate increase of 7.8 percent, officials said today.

But officials are already saying that more work can be done between that time and budget adoption to get the tax rate down.

"I feel it's not acceptable," Johnstown 4th Ward Supervisor James Callery said of the tax hike.

Callery, chairman of the Board of Supervisors' Finance Committee and a candidate for county treasurer, said his committee worked to pare down the proposed budget in a session Wednesday at the County Office Building. He said the Finance Committee will not meet again as a review panel before county Budget Director Alice Kuntzsch releases what is known as her "tentative" 2010 budget at the board's Nov. 9 meeting.

"Right now, the [tax] rate would be up about 8 percent," Callery said.

Fulton County late last year adopted a budget for this year that maintained the 2008 tax rate of $9.76 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

After the tentative budget is received by the board Nov. 9, the board will conduct further budget workshops to try to trim the spending plan. A public hearing is conducted in November and supervisors by law have until Dec. 20 to adopt next year's county budget. Traditionally, the board has adopted the budget by late November or early December in order to get tax bills out.

Finance Committee Vice Chairman Lee Hollenbeck said today the committee Wednesday recommended the tentative budget carrying the 7.8 percent average property tax rate hike. That rate reflects the average of the tax rates among the county's municipalities set due to varying state equalization rates.

Callery said the revenues the county needs to balance its budget are just not projected to come in for 2010.

"The state of New York is killing the county," Hollenbeck said.

Callery said the Finance Committee is recommending the use of $4 million of county fund balance to offset proposed expenditures for 2010. He said that will leave about $11 million in fund balance - still within guidelines of the state Comptroller's Office.

The 2010 budget is expected to exceed $100 million.

Callery said not a lot of budget cutting was done Wednesday and many county departments have been cut anyway.

Hollenbeck said the county must see if the latest requests made by supervisors to certain departments to cut further can realistically be accomplished.

"We have to wait on some of them to come in," he said.

Hollenbeck said sometimes the county has no choice but to "nickel and dime" its way through what can actually be cut from the proposed budget. He said $18,000 was proposed to be cut from the District Attorney's Office and another $100,000 lopped from the Highways and Facilities Department.

The Finance Committee met Oct. 7 to review preliminary budget figures for 2010, and at that time projected a 27 percent increase in the property tax levy. It was unclear this morning how much that levy increase is down to now with proposed cuts and the application of $4 million in county fund balance.

Michael Anich covers Johnstown and Fulton County news. He can be reached at johnstown@leaderherald.com.