Monroe County’s 2025 budget to establish a centralized booking location and speed up the arraignment process

ROCHESTER, NY – Monroe County Executive Adam Bello on Friday presented his 2025 budget proposal, which totals $1.5 billion. That is an increase of approximately 5% compared to the 2024 budget.

Despite the increase, the province plans to reduce the tax rate again. Bello says the plan reduces the tax rate by 9.3% – or 62 cents – to a rate of $6.03 per thousand dollars of assessed property value.

“The tax rate can be lowered because you have two things. One is new construction and new buildings so you’re expanding your tax base, the other obviously if tax rates go up, tax rates can go down,” Bello said.

Bello calls the budget a responsible and responsive plan. Some highlights include investments in public safety, public health, child care, and the historically low tax rate. Once in effect, it will be the lowest property tax rate in Monroe County history.

Bello says that since she took office five years ago, the province is in its strongest financial position in more than two decades.

Most of the spending increase came from subsidies, payroll and benefits for county employees, and state and Medicaid benefits.

The proposed budget included investments in public safety and established a new centralized booking location.

The province plans to create a centralized arraignment court, which would handle morning and evening arraignments. Bello says this not only means officers don’t have to wait for the court to open, but it also speeds up the process, making it fairer.

How it works

When someone is arrested, they are taken to the police station to be arrested and then wait for a judge to hold the arraignment. The proposal centralizes the process. If approved, it would all take place in downtown Rochester at the Monroe County Jail. There will be two sessions each day – one in the morning and one in the evening – when the courts are usually closed.

“So you have all these police departments in all these city and village courts, including the city courts all operating independently of each other – which is really not necessary because we have the right to centralized booking facilities – the Monroe – we have our sheriff deputies county jail,” Bello said.

“When police agencies make that arrest and wait for that arraignment, you’re now taking officers off the street, and I don’t think that works. Why have all these different police departments and tie up all these law enforcement officers when we have the infrastructure,” he added.

The public safety spending plan also includes $280,000 in increased funding for four new probation officers. Once hired, they will help with the province’s program, which aims to prevent youth previously involved in crime from reoffending.

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