Chemung County — Budget Overview

The county collects the sales tax, runs the safety net, and decides how much of that sales tax the City of Elmira sees. Here's the General Fund, and how Chemung's revenue mix compares to its neighbors.

A County That Runs on Sales Tax
Chemung County leans on sales tax far more than property tax — the opposite of how a typical resident thinks about local government. That makes who gets a share of the sales tax the single most important fiscal question in the county, and the heart of the city–county dispute.
$74.4M County sales-tax revenue (2024)
$27.1M County property-tax levy (2024)
38.9% of General Fund revenue is sales tax
14.2% is property tax — sales tax matters ~3× more
Where the Money Comes From — and Goes
Every dollar of the County General Fund, traced from its revenue source on the left, through the county, out to what it pays for on the right. Sales tax dominates the inflow; Social Services and other state-mandated programs dominate the outflow. Hover any flow for its dollar amount and share of the budget; use the budget explorer below to drill into departments and line items.
Chemung County General Fund flow, 2024 Revenue sources (left) flow through the County General Fund to spending categories (right); the smallest categories on each side are grouped into an “Other” node. Hover any flow for the dollar amount. Source: NYS OSC Annual Update Document. In 2024 spending ($196.6M) ran ahead of revenue ($191.3M), with the difference drawn from reserves.
Explore the County Budget
Pick a year and switch between revenue and spending. Social Services and state-mandated programs dominate the spending side — much of it the county has little control over. Spending drills down to the object level, splitting each department into salaries, employee benefits, contractual costs, and equipment.

Source: New York State Comptroller, Annual Update Document — line-item General Fund revenues and expenditures for the County of Chemung, compiled into county-budget.json by scripts/build_budget_json.py. The smallest categories are grouped into an “Other” block — click it to see them. Full provenance on the Data & Sources page.

Revenue vs. Spending Over Time
General Fund totals, 2013–2024 (the years OSC publishes county line items).
Chemung County General Fund revenue and expenditure Source: NYS OSC Annual Update Document.
Sales Tax Dwarfs the Property Levy
The county's sales-tax revenue has grown to nearly three times its property-tax levy. The size of that pool — and how it's divided — is what the City of Elmira is fighting over.
County sales tax (A1110) vs. property tax (A1001) General Fund, 2013–2024.
How Chemung Compares to Its Neighbors
Every Southern Tier / Finger Lakes county relies on sales tax, but Chemung is among the most sales-dependent and least property-dependent. That structure concentrates fiscal power in the sales-tax-sharing decision.
Sales tax and property tax as a share of General Fund revenue, 2024 Chemung vs. selected peer counties. Source: NYS OSC.
The takeaway. Because Chemung funds itself mostly through sales tax, the formula that splits that revenue between the county, its towns, and the City of Elmira is worth tens of millions of dollars. The city's share of that pool has fallen from 12.33% to about 8.2% — see The City–County Relationship.