Another year of good news for Oneida County taxpayers: For the fifth year in a row, property taxes will not go up. 

Thursday morning, County Executive Anthony Picente proudly presented his proposed $407 million budget to the county's legislature. While they were able to keep taxes low, he says it wasn't easy. They've had to make cuts, consolidate and find ways to increase revenue.

"Without it, these budgets would look very different and those cuts could not have occurred, and the zeroes could not have occurred," said Picente.

Also in his budget, the county will bond $16.6 million for capital investments; projects Picente says will focus on road repairs, upgrades to the county's 911 center, and maintenance on the county office building. In addition, he proposed a six-year, $12 million flood mitigation program.

"The weather patterns are what we don't know anymore and we can't predict, but we can fix the streams and add retention ponds," said Picente. "We can look at the culverts and roadways that need to be repaired and then widened, the creeks that need to be widened. That's going to take a lot of money and the towns, as I said, the villages can't do it alone."

During his address, he also emphasized the importance of continuing to invest in the area's agriculture, tourism and health care, specifically mentioning the U-District and Utica's downtown hospital.

"I've never been prouder of this administration, as I said before, and all we do here, and together we will continue to lead this community forward,"said Picente.

It's now up to the legislators to review the budget and make any necessary revisions before voting on a final budget in November.