TROY – Rensselaer County property taxes won’t change in the proposed 2018 county budget of $340.4 million, County Executive Kathleen Jimino said Friday.

Jimino’s 17th and final county budget announcement had the feel of a state of the county address as she summed up recent achievements as she finishes her fourth term in office.

Over nearly two decades in office, drafting the budget must always deal with two things, Jimino said. “ Two factors – what the state is doing to us and what the economy is doing to us.”

Jimino did not look back in her valedictory budget speech but pointed ahead to when her successor will enter office on Jan. 1.

“By continuing to address the community’s cry for more programs to answer their needs in a cost effective manner we have continued to put a structure in place that is geared towards exciting new happenings on the very near horizon,” the county executive said.

Jimino pointed to the state-of-the-art public safety radio system upgrade that is coming online and will be completed in early 2018; an expanding tax base and sales tax revenue; fighting opioid drug addiction through the county’s Heroin Coalition; saving on energy costs; updating county technology; and increasing the county budget reserves to an anticipated $25 million.

The budget Jimino presented to the County Legislature keeps the average county tax rate at $5.846 per $1,000. The $340.4 million budget increases spending 1.2 percent. The county also falls under the state tax levy increase limit of 2.45 percent coming in at 2.1 percent.

The average county property tax bill would remain at $619.28 for each property valued at $100,000. The county uses an average value for determining its projected bill. The amount charged in each town and city varies according to the municipality’s equalization rate, tax base and exempt properties.

“Once again as we keep our county taxes as low as possible we are faced with very difficult decisions,” Jimino said.

County Legislature Chairman Stan Brownell, R-Hoosick, said the proposed budget is good news for county taxpayers and is “a job well done.”

Regarding the budget, Minority Leader Peter Grimm, D-Troy, said, “It’s interesting. We want to get into it.”

The County Legislature has until Dec. 1 to review, amend and adopt the 2018 budget.

Jimino has always blasted the state for mandating services but not providing enough money to cover their costs. While the county executive dropped the term “unfunded mandate” from her budget speech Friday, she did not relinquish the opportunity to criticize state program requirements that set the path for the county budget.

“To further compound our problems, our fiscal resources are severely limited on the county level due to the ever increasing state mandates that take far too much of our local residents’ tax dollars, as too often they are used to support state driven programs that the county has no control over,” Jimino said.

Jimino also had her dollar bill visual aid displayed to show how each property tax dollar is split up among school, county and town or city property taxes.