There is some potential good news about County Executive Maggie Brooks' plan to fix a persistent budget gap. There is also a political curiosity and plenty of criticism from Democrats. And, last week, suburban school districts voted to sue.

If Brooks FAIR plan does turn out to be a long-term solution to the county's persistent budget deficit, as the county executive says, it could help restore Monroe's credit rating, say analysts from the three major credit rating agencies - Fitch, Standard and Poor's, and Moody's.

"We don't want to be too reactionary, but we are certainly paying attention," says Christopher Hessenthaler, an analyst at Fitch.

A persistent budget gap resulted in years of steady downgrades to the county's credit rating. That's driven up the borrowing costs.

If the Brooks plan fixes the county's budget problems, that could mean better ratings and lower borrowing costs. The analysts don't expect any changes before the end of the year, or at least until the county approves a 2008 budget.

Under Brooks' plan, the county will give the state a portion of its sales tax revenues. In return, the state will assume the county's share of Medicaid costs. It also cuts in half the sales tax revenue given to school districts, creates new vehicle registration fees, and initiates a plan to charge-back the county's Monroe Community College costs to taxpayers.

Since the Legislature's Republican majority approved the plan on September 26, Brooks and her fellow party members embarked on a public relations blitz, including radio and television appearances and commercials. (The commercials were paid for by Maggie Brooks' campaign fund.) Part of that strategy included an October 2 "virtual forum," a combination between a conference call and a radio call-in show. Randomly selected voters received a phone call and could join the forum by pushing a button. A recording of the October 2 virtual forum can be heard here.

About 50,000 households were contacted from a random sampling of registered voters, says county spokesperson John Durso, and more than 8,000 residents took part.

Participants were given the opportunity to ask questions, too. But the queries that made it through deflected criticism from the county to school districts, the state, and the Medicaid system - including beneficiaries. Camille from Greece - no last names were given - said she was worried that she might be penalized with a school tax increase. Diana from Churchville asked if school taxes would ever go away and suggested that renters should pay school taxes, too. And Chris from Greece, who works in the health care field, said that Medicaid recipients cause a lot of waste by going to emergency services and outpatient clinics, not their own doctors. Many don't even have a doctor, she said: "They're not the ones being accountable."

Brooks' answers played to the questions. School districts have to put their budgets up for vote, so voters have a way to give direct feedback on any tax increase, she said to Camille. "To play games with the quality of that education just to make a point, I would hope that no school district would do that and I don't think school districts will do that," she said.

Her response to Chris from Greece: "We still are not talking about the elephant in the room, which is that the Medicaid program is growing at an unsustainable rate in New York state."

And when David in Greece asked whether the state can hold back school aid, Brooks said: "There are never any guarantees about things we can't control." (When Brooks unveiled her proposal, she said schools would be able to make up for the lost sales tax money with record increases in state aid.)

As for criticism from Democrats, that's just "partisan rhetoric," Brooks said. They've been attacking the process because they can't find anything wrong with the plan, she said.

On Friday, Democrats introduced a proposal to require a minimum of 24 hours notice for special meetings of the Legislature. They say Republicans didn't give them enough time to examine the FAIR Plan prior to vote. They received the plan at 4:30 p.m. September 26, the executive presented it at 5 p.m., and the Legislature convened to vote on it at 6 p.m.

Democratic legislators are holding a public hearing on the executive's plan at 6 p.m. Thursday, October 11 in the Legislative chambers at the Monroe County office building, 39 West Main Street.

In a 20-minute meeting Wednesday, October 3, the vast majority of Monroe's suburban school districts voted to sue the county. The districts stand to lose about $29 million because of the executive's FAIR Plan.

Monroe County shares sales tax revenue under the Morin-Ryan agreement, a formula established over 20 years ago. That agreement, which involves all municipalities and school districts in Monroe County, is based on percentages. It's established in state law. The school districts believe the FAIR Plan alters the formula because it changes the percentage of sales tax revenue they receive, says Jody Siegle, executive director of the Monroe County School Boards Association. And because it's a state law, she says, it's not within the county's right to do that.

Districts will have to raise taxes or cut staff or programs to make up the difference, say school officials. Estimated losses range from about $294,800 in Wheatland-Chili to over $4 million in Greece. And tax rates could increase in the range of 3 percent to 6 percent, says the School Boards Association.

But the lawsuit is unlikely to bring an immediate halt to the plan. The districts want a court order forcing the county to continue sales tax revenue funding based on net sales tax revenues, not the amount left over after Medicaid is paid for, says Dennis Barrett, a Syracuse-based attorney hired to represent the school districts.

"I am hopeful we'll get a decision from the court by the end of this calendar year," Barrett says.