County Executive Maggie Brooks says her controversial sales-tax intercept proposal is still on the table. And if she gets it approved, it could hurt the city, towns, villages, and suburban school districts in more than one way.

Under the intercept plan, the state would pay for the county's share of Medicaid costs, but it would take some of the county's sales-tax revenue to do it. That would likely reduce the amount that the county shares with the city and the other municipalities.

Locally, there's been strong opposition to the plan, and while Republicans in the County Legislature usually give Brooks what she wants, they may not want to stick their necks out on the intercept. The county executive's position and 14 County Legislature seats will be on the ballot in November.

But Brooks says the intercept plan is still very much an option. The deadline for the county to buy into it is September. To solve the recurring budget gaps, the only solution she says she's ruled out is raising the property tax rate.

The intercept plan is popular with the three major agencies that issue credit ratings. Over the past week, the agencies - Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings -all downgraded the county. The ratings aren't much different from a consumer credit score. The worse the rating, the more the county can expect to pay in interest when it borrows money.

All of the credit firms have said that the county could bump its rating up a couple of notches if it implemented the intercept plan. Analysts at Finch say the intercept plan could be a major step in restoring the county's credit rating, says Christopher Hessenthaler, associate director.

But while the move could boost the county's ratings, it could hurt those of the city, towns, and villages, Hessenthaler says.

Fitch doesn't rate the City of Rochester or any of Monroe's towns or villages. Standard & Poor's, however, does rate Rochester and some of the towns. The firm realizes that the intercept plan could change the financial picture for the city and suburbs, says Robin Prunty, a Standard & Poor's analyst.

"We certainly would evaluate that and determine if there was a rating impact," Prunty says.

Monroe County's ratings have been on a steady decline in recent years, and the analysts blame the county's persistent "structural" deficit: Each year, the county's recurring expenses are greater than its recurring revenues. Absent the one-shot measures that the county has used to plug budget gaps - selling county assets, for example - the county would run annual deficits of tens of millions of dollars.

Moody's projects that the county's 2007 deficit is $24.7 million. And if the state doesn't renew the 1-cent sales-tax increase that expires November 30, that could add another $6 million to the gap. Fitch, however, projects that the county will end the year with a slight operating surplus due to unspecified cost-cutting measures and one-time revenues. But Fitch projects that in 2008 and 2009 the county will have a combined budget gap of $100.2 million.

In the most recent round of downgrades, Moody's dropped Monroe from Baa1 with a negative outlook to a Baa2 with a negative outlook; Standard & Poor's reduced the county's rating from a stable BBB+ to BBB+ with a negative outlook; and Fitch added a negative outlook to the county's BBB+ rating.