Onondaga County legislators have passed a more than $1 billion spending plan for next year. And in the midst of those budget deliberations, legislators have thrown up new obstacles to the Sheriff's department plan to keep its helicopter in the air. YNN's Bill Carey says it's a debate that isn't over yet.

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ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. -- Onondaga County lawmakers have been critical of the costs of the sheriff's department helicopter for years. Air One has been catching flak for frequent trips outside the county to assist other agencies. A policy that the Sheriff says he could change, but won't.

"I can if I'm willing to let people in the surrounding counties lose their lives and I'm not willing to do that. When I get the call at two o'clock in the morning that a child's life across the border is in danger if we don't give them emergency air medical transport, I'm not going to refuse that," Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh said.

County Executive Joanie Mahoney had already removed budget spending for the salaries of the Air One pilots, saying the Sheriff would have to arrange for grants or other private funding. But lawmakers wanted to go further. The chairman of the legislature proposing removing any identifiable spending for the helicopter from the new budget.

"I'm not against helicopters. I'm just against the taxpayers, you and I, folks in this county, paying the tremendous expense that it costs to operate that," Onondaga County legislature Chairman James Rhinehart said.

The debate showed an issue that criss-crossed party lines. The democratic minority leader supporting the GOP chairman. Veteran republican opposing the Rhinehart plan.

Other lawmakers saying they had sought some type of deal with the Sheriff to rein in costs by limiting services, but had been rebuffed.

"No, it's all or nothing. Well, unfortunately, we're at that choice. It's all or nothing," said Legislature Majority leader Richard Lesniak.

In the end, lawmakers voted 12 to seven to remove Air One's funding. While they can reduce the Sheriff's budget, they have no authority to tell the Sheriff how to spend his department's money and as for grounding the helicopter...

"No, that's not our plan and we intend to continue to fly Air One," Walsh said.

The job now will be to find a way to pay the bill.