At a recent meeting, County Treasurer Bill Craine presented the Chenango County 2026 Tentative Budget to the Chenango County board. A public hearing will be held at 5 p.m., November 24, in the Supervisor's Chambers in the County Office Building, located at 5 Court Street, Norwich. (Photo by Kelli Miller)

NORWICH - A public hearing on the 2026 Tentative Chenango County Budget will be held at 5 p.m., November 24, in the board meeting room at the County Office Building, located at 5 Court Street, Norwich.

During a meeting on Monday, County Treasurer Bill Craine presented the 2026 Chenango County Tentative Budget to the county board and said, “this is a tax cap compliant budget,” with no fiscal stress.

Despite being just under the 2 percent tax cap requirement the proposed 2026 budget is $121,388,400.74, nearly 7 percent more than the 2025 budget.

The proposed budget does not include an estimated $35 million in costs for the proposed building project to construct a new county office building.

Craine said the building project requires separate financing and separate approvals from the board. He said the board was meeting to review the building project later in December and hoping to have a public presentation by early next year. He said it was not part of the regular budget and likely financed for a 20 to 30 year period, if approved.

He said the current budget was sound. “We want to have reasonable revenue and expense expectations,” said Craine. “Last year, sales tax revenue was down 3.5%, this year we have some corrections, and it is ahead.” He said they budget about 95% of the previous year's sales taxes.

Craine dove into the overview of the budget, discussing Chenango County's six guiding financial precepts.