Oneida County’s fiscal year is nearly half over and county officials are taking stock of how well their $360.5 million spending plan is faring.

County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. began a budget discussion at Wednesday’s Republican legislative caucus when he noted that money owed the county by the state is on the rise. He estimated that the state now owes about $35 million.

"We want to watch that for the next 30 days," he said.

He then noted that in recent days the county received money from the state for expenses incurred in 2009-10 and even 2007-08.

Two years ago, at Picente’s direction, the county withheld weekly Medicaid payments to the state for a time to protest mounting unpaid reimbursables.

"It’s crazy how they pay," replied Comptroller Joseph J. Timpano when asked by a lawmaker if the state had priorities or a schedule on what payments to make and when.

"The expenses are running fairly low," he replied when quizzed about budgeted expenses compared to actual ones far this year. He said a review of expenses for the first five months of the year showed they were in the neighborhood of 30 to 35 percent of the anticipated total for the year. The county’s budget cycle follows the calendar year.

Picente told the caucus he anticipated giving a mid-year budget report at next month’s meeting of the Board of Legislators.

Legislator David J. Wood, R-28, Rome, asked the county executive to give updates on the impact of step salary increases, and health and retirement costs in his report.

Legislator Richard A. Flisnik, R-8, Marcy, said the county had to stay focused on the bottom line. "We’ve got some problems ahead of us," he said.

Picente said the fund balance had been replenished somewhat by the 2011 surplus of slightly more than $6 million.

Nonetheless, he would not commit to not having to resort to short-term borrowing to raise cash to pay bills during periods when obligations exceeded available cash.