County To Pay Off Amortized Retirement Payment’s Early

Paying Off Amortization Bill Early Saves Taxpayers Half A Million Dollars

County Executive Anthony J. Picente announced today his plan to pay off $2,907,482 in amortized state retirement payments. The amortization of County retirement bills, required by law to be paid annually to the State, has been an approach used since 2011. By paying the $2,907,482 early the County saves $460,305 in interest payments.

Picente said “This is the final payment in our amortization bill from 2012. As I have said all along, we set out to pay these bills back early to save the taxpayer money. That’s exactly what we are doing today and have done all along. Paying this bill now will save the tax payers a half a million dollars.”

This final payment covers the entire remaining amount of amortized payments from 2012.

County Executive Picente went on to say “We are faced with making tough decisions based on fiscal realities. Amortization has been one of the most effective tools to relieve county taxpayers from mandated payments to the State. It’s a hard decision to delay some of our retirement payments but it is a better decision than raising taxes on hardworking families in Oneida County.”

Oneida County Comptroller Joseph J. Timpano said of the payment “This payment is another example of how we effectively manage our debt and we see that positively reflected in our ratings from our national credit agencies.”

Since 2011 Oneida County’s total retirement payment will be forty four million dollars. In the past three years, and this upcoming year, Oneida County will have amortized $13 million dollars which has been paid down to $5.3 Million.

There is an option provided by NY State to amortize or delay payment of retirement bills available to counties to relieve some of the burden of the ever increasing retirement liabilities.

Oneida County has paid $31 Million in retirement payments since 2011 that were not amortized.