Patricia Doxsey reports in the Daily Freeman that Ulster County could find itself with another multimillion-dollar surplus in 2022, according to a report issued this week by Comptroller March Gallagher. Gallagher said a “conservative analysis of previous years’ third quarter results indicate that Ulster County could see a 2022 surplus of $25 million.” In her report, Gallagher said the county in the first three quarters of 2022, received $258.2 million, or 73.1 percent of its budgeted revenues, the same percentage the county received at the same time in 2021. She said the county has to date realized a 9.2 percent increase in sales tax revenues when compared to 2021, and projected that sales tax revenues in 2022 could “greatly exceed” the $139 million budgeted for the year. The County Executive’s Office has said the county could receive as much as $167 million in sales tax revenue in 2022. Gallagher said the occupancy tax was up during the third quarter as well, 20 percent over the same time in 2021. The county’s 2022 budget projected $143 million in revenues from that tax. The report added that if the Comptroller's projections hold true it would mark the third year in a row the county ended the year with a surplus. “The previous two years added $51.5 million combined to the fund balance and this year may add a considerable amount more,” the report stated. Also, employment levels in Ulster County continued to increase in 2022 with 1,700 new jobs created as of the end of October. The top job-generating sectors were education and health service, and leisure and hospitality. Gallagher did warn that while the county’s financial situation has improved, the 2023 budget added 54 new positions to county government, creating ongoing expenses in the future. She urged county officials to limit new additions to the budget in order to protect county taxpayers from future tax increases during what she said is the “inevitable downturn in revenues.” Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.