New York State officials have rescheduled the due date for an “extra” mandated Medicaid payment from counties, a move that will spare St. Lawrence County homeowners and taxpayers an unexpected $461,076 mandate expense next year.

Counties throughout the state were on the hook for the extra payment because state bureaucrats had moved a payment deadline one day earlier, to Dec. 31 to avoid the Jan. 1, 2013 New Year’s holiday. That pushed the payment into the counties’ 2012 budget year for counties and threatened to throw local government budgets out of balance.

State Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, cheered the decision.

“At a time when we are all working to cut costs and straining to put their budgets together, a simple calendar glitch would have wreaked havoc as county governments begin to assemble to their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year,” she said.

“I am grateful to state officials who worked with us, and allowed common sense to prevail over bureaucracy, to the benefit of taxpayers and local governments.”

In Ritchie’s state Senate district, the extra payment in 2012 would have cost Oswego County an additional $481,084; Jefferson County $386,215; and St. Lawrence County $461,076. With the change, the counties can plan their 2012 budget year without having to come up with the extra payment, with no additional cost to the state.

Ritchie said the experience has reinforced her commitment to tackling the problem of out-of-control mandates that are driving up the cost of government, while producing little benefit.