Sarah Trafton is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Greene County Legislature November 18, approved the county's $112.6 million 2021 budget. The spending plan will stay relatively flat, increasing by $500,000; the budget calls for $2.5 million to be drawn from the county's reserve fund, as well. The amount to be raised by taxes will remain at the 2020 level of $27.4 million, with nine of the county’s 14 towns seeing tax-rate reductions, according to the budget document. “Our legislators and county leaders have done an excellent job holding the line on expenses and continuing to provide essential services during a quite challenging time,” Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger said. “We’ve delivered a very conservative budget to provide excellent value to our taxpayers,” Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden said. At the end of the year, the county is projected to have $49.5 million of debt, with $38 million coming from the new Greene County Jail project. Sales-tax revenue is projected to increase by $500,000 in the 2021 budget, to $32.7 million. “The phenomenon for sales tax is that the mall may have been closed but people are still buying their sneakers; they’re just doing it online,” Groden said. He noted that people may be changing the way they shop and how they shop, but they are still shopping. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.