During a presentation Thursday, Monroe County Executive Adam Bello says he’s waiting on data to determine the exact amount of loss in sales tax revenue for the county.

"Without COVID-19, we were on track to have expected a budget surplus in the neighborhood of around $3.9 million to 11.7 million. So we were in a net positive position for Monroe County as we were projecting for the rest of the year," Bello (D) said.

Bello says the county so far has spent $10 million of the $129 million earmarked under the federal CARES Act for coronavirus-related expenses.

"How do we use the CARES Act money and how does the guidance continue to change as we go through there, and many of our actions going forward are going to be contingent on additional aid coming from the federal government," said the county executive.

Bello was asked if he was considering a property tax hike to help cover a projected shortfall.

"We're too early in the process to understand where this will go. But like I said, we have a property tax cap. You can't go over the property tax cap even if you wanted to. That's why I said you cannot property tax your way out of a $100 million deficit," said Bello.

In a statement released by the Republican majority leader of the Monroe County Legislature, Steve Brew said in part:

"Monroe County Executive Adam Bello isn't willing to rule out raising taxes, the Republican majority in the county Legislature will not support a property tax rate increase. We cannot rely on the federal or state government to balance our budget. The wait-and-see approach will only deepen the fiscal hole."

The Bello administration says it’s facing more of a revenue issue than an expenditure issue, and is already considering the challenge still ahead of setting up next year’s spending plan in the midst of a health crisis.

"We're just at the start of this, but I promise that this is going to be a transparent, open conversation...The other factor that's going to play a role in this is how we open the economy and when we open the economy. One of our largest decreases in potential revenue streams is potentially from our sales tax revenue and from our motel/hotel tax revenue, which are obviously directly related to how the economy is open, and how quickly that can happen, but being done in a safe way that manages public safety,” said Bello.