Once again, Saratoga County will be one of the lowest taxed counties in the state of New York. The county rolled out its tentative 2011 budget and our C.J. Spang has the details.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. -- While neighboring cities and counties are struggling to make ends meet - raising taxes and laying off workers - Saratoga County is comparatively in great shape.

"Saratoga County is really an oasis, here in upstate New York," said Bill Peck, Chairman of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors.

Highlighting the tentative 2011 budget is a steady, average property tax rate of just over two dollars per $1,000 assessed value, one of the lowest rates in the state of the New York. County sales tax also remains flat at three percent.

"We take great pride in holding our tax rate down," said Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Thomas N. Wood III. "And again, no layoffs of staff of the county as well here. It's a tremendous accomplishment."

"We want a stable tax base," Peck said. "We think it's important for future growth. You keep taxes down. That's just something we've done for years here."

Major expenses for the county include $11.6 million for capital projects and $500,000 for the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Program.

"I think we're all pretty much on the same wavelength here," Wood said. "That we want to control expenditures if you will, and still provide the basic services that our residents need and deserve."

This is only a tentative budget. And the public will have a chance to chime in at a November 30th hearing before the final budget is adopted December 15th.