Monroe County Executive Adam Bello says a report on county sales tax collections due on May 11th will give the county a good idea of how bad it's going to be hit by the coronavirus shutdown. Bello says the report for April will be the first to really show what the county will lose, but they have already done some projections.
The projections show total losses of from $68 million to $122 million out of the total county budget which is nearly a billion dollars. Bello says much will depend on how much of a cut the county takes in state aid, which is projected to drop by 10-to-20 percent because of the coronavirus. Fortunately he says $129 million in federal aid is covering most of the county's direct expenses for fighting the virus.
Bello says early projections show losses of $45 million to $79 million for sales tax, hotel-motel tax and service fees that give the county much of its income. Bello says add to that a ten-to-20 percent cut expected in state aid because of the state's coronavirus budget gap.
Fortunately the federal CARES Act is covering the county's direct expenses for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, but that aid money can't be used for budgeted county expenses.