The Sheriff’s Office seemed to get the short end of the stick last week when County Executive Joanie Mahoney proposed the 2012 budget for Onondaga County.

In the proposed budget, the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office isn’t currently allocated any local tax dollars for its Air-1 helicopter. The Air-1, which is a single-engine Bell 407 helicopter that was purchased in 1999, is mostly used to transport injured accident victims to hospitals around the area.

The strategy for this year’s budget was two-tiered, said James Rowley, Onondaga County’s chief fiscal officer. On one hand, the county created a ‘bare bones’ budget due to the tax cap that the county is currently under, he said. The bare bones budget includes pension, health care expenditures and other state mandates, Rowley said.

Rowley said the county didn’t want to cut the levy too much because it’s hard to get that money back once it’s gone. On the other hand, a rainy day fund has been created for nonrecurring expenditures.

‘The rainy day fund for one-shot expenses is favorable because you’re not creating a structural gap in the operating budget,’ Rowley said.

Rowley said the sheriff’s office knew it would be cutting back on funding allocated to the helicopter’s use, and other options such as Mercy Flight and a state helicopter are available for use.

‘The sheriff has said he can raise money through the nonprofit corporation that he set up,’ Rowley said. ‘We are challenging him to go out and raise the money to keep Air-1 afloat. With the fiscal climate that we’re in, it’s not a good expenditure (for the county).’

Marty Masterpole (D–Syracuse), a member of the Onondaga County Legislature, said the Sheriff’s Office knew the helicopter funding was on the chopping block, so they started fundraising last year to try and delay the decision. But Masterpole said Mahoney was doing what she had to do.

‘Four years in a row we’ve been talking about it, so if it’s a surprise to anybody then that’s sad,’ he said.

Masterpole said he understands it is an important asset for the Sheriff’s Office, but he also understands the money currently being allocated to it could be used in other places. However, he said he and his constituents will continue to support the decision.

‘There’s no question that it’s a great tool for the sheriff’s department; however, it’s an expensive tool,’ Masterpole said. ‘Do I think it should be on the list of priorities? Yes, the city police as well as the firefighters all get use out of it.’

In the proposed budget, Mahoney has allocated $347,000 for the pilots’ salaries and $200,000 for the helicopter costs, but no tax dollars to cover those costs, according to a Sept. 14 article published by The Post-Standard. The reason why there are the pilots’ salaries in the budget but not the tax dollars for the helicopter is because this has been a recurring issue, Masterpole said.

To make ends meet, the Sheriff’s Office will have to raise money in the form of donations, but Sheriff Kevin Walsh said in the article that it wouldn’t be nearly enough. So far, Walsh has raised $4,000.

The Sheriff’s Office could not be reached to comment.

If the Air-1 is not able to be used next year, other departments are going to have to pick up the slack, like the state police helping the Syracuse city police when they have armed suspects, Masterpole said.

‘The sheriff says it will cost people their lives,’ Masterpole said. ‘I’m not 100 percent certain that’s a quantitative statement, but if they can’t use it, it will be Mercy Flight taking all of the ambulance transfers to hospitals.’

The county legislators were unhappy in October 2010, according to an Oct. 7 article published by The Post-Standard, because the Air-1 was not only being used in Onondaga County, but also going and transporting accident victims from other counties.

The article stated that out of the 24 times the helicopter went out on a mission in 2009, it went outside Onondaga County 17 times, without any reimbursement from other counties.

hawentz@syr.edu 

Published on September 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm