Democrats and Republicans agree that Monroe County's financial picture isn't great. But just how bad it is depends on who you ask.

Democratic legislators held a press conference last week to say that the county is headed toward bankruptcy and that the Brooks administration hasn't come up with a plan to prevent it. Brooks' preferred solution - letting the state pay the county's Medicaid costs in return for giving up some of its sales tax - the sales-tax intercept proposal, is dead on arrival, said legislator Ted O'Brien.

Proof of the county's deteriorating finances, Democrats say, is in its 2006 year-end financial statements. From the end of 2005 to the end of 2006, the county's assets declined by $8.8 million, according to the Democrats' analysis. Meanwhile, its liabilities increased by $65.5 million. During that same period, its reserve funds went from $9.8 million to a $7.5 million deficit. And the money borrowed to cover anticipated revenues or to plug budget gaps grew from $55 million to $85 million.

What's particularly alarming, Democrats said, is that the county has no reserves for emergencies or to help plug future gaps.

"There's no money whatsoever available to use in future budgets," said legislator Paul Haney.

And any time there's a deficit at year's end, the money has to be made up in future budgets, the Democrats said. Each year, the county has found some way, usually through one-shot revenues like the sale of county facilities or future tobacco settlement payments, to move into the black.

A conversation about fixing finances should be happening between both parties in the legislature, said legislator Stephanie Aldersley, but that isn't happening.

Among the Democrats' proposals to help solve the budget problem: abolishing the Monroe County Water Authority - which makes money - and turning it into a county department, having the Sheriff's Road Patrol funded only by the towns that use it, and consolidating some government services.

County Executive Maggie Brooks' reaction: the county isn't on the verge of bankruptcy. "I think that's a little overstated," she said during an interview Thursday afternoon.

Brooks also said she agrees that there needs to be a long-term solution for the county's annual deficit, and she has suggested a sales tax increase. "The only thing that is not on the table is a property tax increase," Brooks said.

Democrats should direct their energy toward their party members in Albany to reduce the funding mandates on county government, said Brooks. "Monroe County is constantly on the defensive for a problem based in Albany," she said.