Layoffs. Job cuts. Attrition. All words that are becoming too commonly used in this struggling economy. And unfortunately, all words used in the passing of the 2010 Schuyler County budget. Our Vince Slomsky tells us about the fiscal plan and how it will affect the county.

SCHUYLER COUNTY, N.Y. -- Schuyler County legislators have passed the proposed $45.2 million budget. It's only a one percent increase in spending from 2009, but it also has a tax levy increase of four percent, which may or may not affect you.

"Depending on the town that you live in and the equalization rates that apply to that, your taxes may be going down. There are other areas of the county because of equalization rates, there may be a slight increase," said Timothy O'Hearn, the county administrator.

But the biggest impact is that the county will lose 13 jobs. Four employees in social services and four in community services will be laid off. Three positions in highway, one in law enforcement and one in buildings and grounds will be left vacant through attrition.

"We attempted to do this strictly as a last resort. However, given the increases in employee related costs, pensions, health insurance, wages and salaries, they far outpaced the revenue gains we could realize," said O'Hearn.

The budget passed by a vote of six to two. Those against it say the job cuts were unnecessary and could have been avoided if the county would have instead re-instituted the four percent sales tax on clothing.

"These layoffs are not necessary. There are good responsible alternatives to doing the layoffs and we had hoped the legislators would at least take the time to look into those alternatives more thoroughly," said Sue Brill, President of the Civil Service Employees Association Local 849.

But there may actually still be some time for this decision to be reversed.

"They have some time to still amend the budget and we're not just giving up and saying fine, this decision stands. We're going to continue to work with them, present them with alternatives and try to get them to work on those alternatives with us," said Brill.