SCHENECTADY COUNTY Budget to call for tax hike Savage: 9.7 percent increase is ‘totally unacceptable’ BY MARK ROBARGE Gazette Reporter
For the past three years, the Schenectady County Legislature has given the same guidance to County Manager Kathleen Rooney when she prepares the annual county budget: Do not include a property tax increase. In 2005 and 2006, Rooney heeded that guidance, but this year appears to be a different story, according to Susan Savage, chairwoman of the county Legislature. Rooney is scheduled to present the proposed 2008 county budget to the Legislature during its committee meetings that begin at 7 p.m. today, and Savage said Rooney told her the proposal will call for a 9.7 percent tax hike. “A tax increase of this kind is totally unacceptable,” Savage, D-Dis- Savage trict 3, said Sunday. “In the coming days, the Legislature will hold budget review sessions to identify cuts that can be made and areas where efficiency can be increased in order to significantly reduce or eliminate the need for a tax increase.” Rooney did not return several phone calls Sunday to confirm details of the budget proposal and respond to Savage’s comments. By law, Rooney must present the budget to the Legislature by Oct. 1 and the Legislature has until Nov. 1 to make changes and approve the final spending plan. The $279.7 million 2007 budget included no increase in the county property tax levy, while the $238.6 million 2006 budget actually cut the tax levy by about 1 percent. Savage said that stability is necessary to continue revitalizing the local economy. “[In the past two years,] we’ve put 35 new or rehabbed buildings back on the tax rolls, created over 2,000 new jobs, attracted more than $230 million in new investment to the county and brought the county’s full-value tax rate to its lowest level since 1962,” she said. “We need to continue that momentum, and a tax increase of this magnitude is not the way to do so.” Rotterdam town Supervisor Steven Tommasone said Sunday he was flabbergasted by Rooney’s proposed tax increase. “That’s unreal,” the Republican said of the increase. “I’m honestly in shock. This is going to devastate the taxpayers in Rotterdam.” Many town taxpayers are already reeling from dramatic increases in their tax bills from the Mohonasen Central School District, Tommasone said, with a 4.25 percent increase magnified by a revaluation of town property completed earlier this year. For those property owners, a large county tax hike on higher property values will only add to the outrage already being voiced around town. “It’s like the shock and then the aftershock,” Tom- masone said. “I don’t typically involve myself in county business unless it involves us, but I think we’re going to have to take a very close look at this budget.” County Legislator Joseph Suhrada, R-District 4, said he was not surprised by the increase, however. He said he has been warning Democratic leaders for six years that they need to cut spending in the budget or eventually face a large tax hike. Instead, he said, the majority has done such things as double the size of the county’s legislative staff. “This is unacceptable, and I’m afraid it will get worse,” Suhrada said of the proposed tax hike. But while Savage said she could not address specific areas of the budget until Rooney presents it tonight, she said the increase is primarily driven by increasing local costs for state-mandated services and programs, specifically in social service and child welfare programs. “We can control the non-mandated portion of the budget, but state mandates, which are passed down to the county level, continue to grow,” she said. “If New York state assumed the cost of Medicaid [as do 48 of the 50 states], the Schenectady County Legislature could cut property taxes by 50 percent.” The first step to address the increase will be a request to all county department heads for deep budget cuts, according to county Legislator Anthony Jasenski Sr., D-District 4. “We need to bring the manager’s proposed increase down by cutting spending,” Jasenski said. “Our fi rst step will be to ask every department head to present us with a plan to reduce spending by 10 percent, and we will continue work from there.” Suhrada said he will suggest that legislators take a pay cut and reduce their staff, as well. “If we’re going to have to make cuts, we should set the example,” he said.
Budget includes tax increase Schenectady County legislators seek cuts in 2008 spending plan
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer First published: Monday, October 1, 2007
SCHENECTADY -- Schenectady County Manager Kathleen Rooney is set to reveal a $283 million 2008 budget with a nearly 10 percent property tax increase -- but the legislators who hired her say the spending plan needs a major diet. Lawmakers will ask department heads to cut 10 percent of the spending from their budgets.
"We'll start with that and go from there," Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage said. She said further savings could come from shared services, unloading vacant county properties and eliminating unfilled and unnecessary positions.
Savage released details of the budget on Sunday, one day before Rooney is expected to present the budget to the legislature and the public.
Rooney -- whom Savage and her Democratic majority appointed to her $130,000-a-year post -- did not return calls Sunday night.
Legislator Philip Fields estimated the tax levy -- or amount to be raised by county taxes -- to be in the neighborhood of $60 million. That figure is roughly the same as last year's adopted budget of $280 million, said Fields.
He blamed the projected increase in county taxes lost from slowdown in sales-tax revenue and on a slowdown in property sales, which means less revenue from mortgage taxes.
Lawmakers blame state requirements to hire more jail guards and overhauls of the Department of Social Services prompted by an increase in child abuse complaints.
More employees have also been hired to deal with foster care needs.
Several budget review sessions and a public hearing will be held before the spending plan is adopted around Nov. 1, said county officials.
Paul Nelson can be reached at 454-5347 or by e-mail at pnelson@timesunion.com.
“[In the past two years,] we’ve put 35 new or rehabbed buildings back on the tax rolls, created over 2,000 new jobs, attracted more than $230 million in new investment to the county and brought the county’s full-value tax rate to its lowest level since 1962,” she said. “We need to continue that momentum, and a tax increase of this magnitude is not the way to do so.”
With all of these so called positive new money making investments, I was hopeful that this type of a tax increase would be almost non-existant.
The city residents must come out in full force to change their dysfunctional dictatorship.
The surrounding county residents must also come out in full force to change the dysfuntional dictatorship in the county legislature.
Like z says.....'A CHANGE IS COMING'.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The County Manager, Kathleen Rooney, reveals a 10% increase in property taxes. Ms. Savage then comes out through the press and announces that the increase is too much and that the County Legislature will work to reduce or eliminate it. Look for the Democratic majority in the Legislature to propose a cut in the increase and publicize it in the days leading up to the November general election.
Further, will the proposed 10% increase and subsequent cut in the rate, pacify those who are calling for a reduction in the government spending and a REDUCTION in taxes? Be careful not to lose sight of the "golden ring". We should be demanding a DECREASE in our county property taxes supported by a cut in spending. With this increase in property taxes, Schenectady County will move up in the ranking of the highest taxed counties in the nation from 10th to ??? This is a list on which we don't want to be #1.
The next general meeting of the County Legislature is Tuesday, October 9th @ 7 pm. For those who are interested in expressing their views, I encourage you to attend. I plan to be there.
I believe that is just what it is....A political ploy!! So it is a 'taxpayer/voter beware'.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Oh come on BK, we gotta go to this meeting. We gotta see how Suzie set us up for the fall. I don't even believe for one single minute that she didn't know what this proposed budget was going to be right from the beginning. Suzie has her hands in everything! You can bet that she and the rest of the dysfuntional county legislature will arise as saviours and reduce the increase. It should be a real fiasco!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Oh come on BK, we gotta go to this meeting. We gotta see how Suzie set us up for the fall. I don't even believe for one single minute that she didn't know what this proposed budget was going to be right from the beginning. Suzie has her hands in everything! You can bet that she and the rest of the dysfuntional county legislature will arise as saviours and reduce the increase. It should be a real fiasco!!
Now, Bumble. If you had told me who you were and I knew that you had been to some of these meetings lately, then I would say maybe, but I need a week off. Maybe you have been coming to this meetings, in cognito. I know I've seen (and personally talked to) many of the members of this form at local meetings as of late, and they can attest to the fact that whenever I go to one of these meetings, I don't keep my trap shut. (Probably one good reason for me NOT to go to some of these meetings.) I figure I could at least take the week of my birthday off without a bit of criticism...maybe...
Ways to cut tax hike eyed Budget tied to $3.4M decline in revenues BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Schenectady County legislators say trying to whittle down an almost 10 percent increase in the property tax levy proposed in the budget for 2008 poses a major challenge. County Manager Kathleen Rooney presented a tentative budget at Monday night’s county Legislature meeting. Legislators have until Nov. 1 to adopt the spending plan. SCHENECTADY COUNTY The $283.4 million budget reflects a growth of less than 1 percent, or $2.2 million, but raises the tax levy by $5.6 million to $63.6 million, an increase of 9.7 percent. The tax levy increase reflects the $2.2 million growth in the budget plus a $3.4 million drop in revenues. The budget recommends a tax rate of $6.55 per $1,000 assessed value. Under the proposed rate, the owner of a home in Schenectady assessed at $80,000 would pay $524 in county taxes next year. The county sets tax rates in December, following the release of equalization rates and the filing of assessment rolls. Rooney said the tax levy would have been higher were it not for $5.1 million in staff cuts, program cost containments, the elimination or reduction of contracts and efforts to increase revenues. “We didn’t walk into this process to present you with a tax increase,” Rooney said. The proposed 2008 budget eliminates 51 full-time positions, for a savings of $2.4 million. Approximately 42 of the positions come from the Glendale Home, two from the county library system, two from public works, 1 /2 from the job training agency, one non-correctional officers’ position from the jail, one position from emergency management, one from the Department of Social Services and a half-position from other departments. Since 2003, the county has reduced staff by 130 positions, to approximately 1,100 full-time and 300 part-time employees, Rooney said. The county budget contains money to hire six full-time correctional officers for the jail. The state Commission of Correction, however, is requiring the county to hire 26 full-time officers. Should the commission press the matter, the county would have to spend an additional $800,000 or more. The 2008 budget includes retention of 18 Department of Social Services’ staff hired under the Xctasy Garcia Act of 2007. The legislation is designed to prevent a recurrence of child abuse that Xctasy Garcia experienced in 2006 at the hands of her mother and the mother’s boyfriend. Both adults, who were receiving county welfare services at the time of the abuse, were later sentenced to prison. The budget also contains two new probation officers for schools, paid for through a state grant; two attorneys for the Conflict Defender’s Office; and a director of communications, budgeted at $60,000, who was hired this year. Legislators plan several budget sessions in coming weeks to reduce the proposed $5.6 million tax levy increase. The budget’s large element of mandated programs leaves little wiggle room. “There are just so many cuts you can make to the budget. I have been told that we have cut beyond the bone and into the marrow,” said Legislator Vincent DiCerbo, DSchenectady. Minority Leader Robert Farley, R-Glenville, calling the budget presentation “sober.” “I think we can make reductions. We can’t afford not to,” Farley said. He recommended a comprehensive audit of social services. Legislator Gary Hughes, D-Schenectady, said “nothing is sacred,” including quality-of-life programs for senior citizens, children and adults. “We need to look at everything.” Legislator Phillip Fields, D-Schenectady, chairman of the Legislature’s ways and means committee, said legislators will “examine and streamline, but not chop” operations at the county nursing home, at the library and in long-term care. State- and federal-mandated program costs represent 77 percent of the total $283.4 million budget, and account for 100 percent of county property taxes, Rooney said. Medicaid alone represents 48 percent, or $30.6 million, of the county’s $63.6 million tax levy, she said. The county’s share of costs to provide Medicaid, public assistance, corrections, indigent defense and services to children with special needs, all mandated services and beyond county control, climbed by $1.7 million. Employee heath care costs increased by $610,000. The county is mandated to provide prosecution, indigent defense, services for children with special needs, election services, social services, the county jail, county clerk services, probation services and several other programs. It is not required to provide services to senior citizens and veterans. Nor does it have to fund the county library and the countywide hazardous materials response program. It also does not need to operate the Albany Street business center, a full-scale health department, the Glendale Home and comprehensive services for children. Even Rooney’s position is optional. The current leadership of the county Legislature remains committed to offering these services while trying to reduce their costs, legislators said. The county, for example, is reducing the number of beds at Glendale to 240, from 360. The state wants Schenectady to reduce Glendale to 180 beds, a move the county has resisted. The county plans to reduce staff at Glendale through attrition and without resorting to layoffs, Rooney said. Even with the size reduction, the county expects to spend $7 million to operate Glendale in 2008, the same that it spent in 2007, Rooney said. The county also reduced employee health benefit costs by $1 million through changes in health insurance premiums; reduced foster care services by $600,000; and saved $100,000 by closing a senior citizen meal site, leaving six in operation. The addition of two full-time attorneys to the Conflict Defenders Office is designed to save the county money in the long term, Rooney said. The attorneys will be assigned full time to Family Court, saving $100,000 in assigned counsel legal fees. County Finance Commissioner George Davidson said the tentative budget uses $6.9 million from the surplus account, approximately $800,000 less than the amount used for the 2007 budget. He said the county needs to rely less in the future on the surplus as a mechanism to balance the annual budget. Otherwise, the county will deplete the surplus, causing long-term financial problems. The county would have less than $20 million remaining in the account should legislators use the recommended $6.9 million. Rooney said a weak national housing market and less consumer demand hurt the county. Both generate sales taxes, a prime source of revenue. Because of these factors, the county collected $2.3 million less in sales tax and $300,000 less in mortgage tax than projected. It had projected to receive $85.1 million in sales tax receipts and $2.06 million in mortgage tax in the 2007 budget. The estimates are based on the fi rst two quarters of 2007. Rooney’s initial 2007 budget projected $84.2 million in sale tax receipts, but legislators jacked up the amount to the adopted figure during last year’s budget deliberations. Farley Monday night criticized majority Democrats for “overestimating the sales tax” in the 2007 budget. “That’s why we voted against it.” Legislator Robert T. Farley speaks during a Schenectady County Legislature meeting Monday evening. MEREDITH L. KAISER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
“There are just so many cuts you can make to the budget. I have been told that we have cut beyond the bone and into the marrow,” said Legislator Vincent DiCerbo, DSchenectady.
Government is too big. Government is too wasteful. End Metroplex and get rid of Gillen. Where is all of the new tax revenue?
EDITORIALS County must make cuts, reconsider grandiose plans
At least Schenectady County lawmakers all seem to agree that County Manager Kathy Rooney’s tentative budget, which would hike taxes 9.7 percent next year, is too rich for taxpayers’ blood. Figuring out where to cut, so the tax hike is more palatable, may be another matter, however, because there doesn’t seem to be a lot of fat in the budget, and it’s notably lean in an area the county has been ordered to beef up — the jail. Here are a few suggestions: The county can probably do some trimming in the Social Services Department, where 18 staffers were hired last year in the aftermath of the Xcstasy Garcia debacle. Yes, the department was understaffed and mismanaged when the torture case involving a 4-year-old girl occurred last summer. But the solution to the problem had less to do with staffi ng than with the department’s procedures for dealing with such cases. (The caseworker who took the initial abuse complaint blew off the caller, telling him to alert the state.) Those procedures have since been changed. Legislator Robert Farley’s call for a top-to-bottom, independent audit of social services — made routinely over the past several years but largely ignored by Democratic leaders — has never made more sense. With the Medicaid budget alone representing 48 percent of its tax levy, the county needs to make sure that only those people who really need assistance are getting it. That’s not just true of health insurance for low-income county residents, but other government programs as well. While such a review would cost money, it would undoubtedly produce longterm savings. Legislative Chairwoman Susan Savage may need to rethink her plan to move the Schenectady County Community College music program to Center City — at a cost of $16 million. This and other ambitious capital plans, like the construction of a new nursing home, should be abandoned unless most of the money for them comes from outside the county. Legislators will have to be more realistic about estimating l revenue from such sources as the county sales tax. Given the state of the economy last year, it was irresponsible of the Legislature to raise the estimate for that revenue above Rooney’s forecast, which itself was overly optimistic. The shortfall from this assumption totaled $2.3 million. Legislators will also have to be careful about using the county’s surplus to balance the budget. While this year’s tentative budget would use $800,000 less than the $7.7 million used last year, it’s still too big a chunk: Less than $20 million would remain. At the rate the county has been going, the surplus would be gone in just a few more years. As hard-to-stomach as this budget proposal might seem, the situation could get even worse if the state Commission of Correction holds the county to hiring the 26 full-time jail guards — 20 more than in the budget — it ordered after an escape two winters ago. As it completes its review in the coming month, the Legislature needs to keep that possibility in mind, and make sure not to skimp on the cuts.
Counties save $200M with Medicaid cap ALBANY — County governments in New York saved almost $200 million in the first full year of implementation of the Medicaid cap passed in 2005, according to the state Health Department. The cap puts limits on how much the county share of Medicaid spending can go up in a year, shifting excess costs to the state share. According to state figures released Tuesday, Schenectady County saved $1,001,507, or 3 percent of what its expenses would have been without the cap. Albany County saved $1,553,048, 3 percent; Fulton County $684,417, 5 percent; Montgomery County $863,630, 8 percent; Saratoga County $628,445, 3 percent; and Schoharie County $1,418, 0 percent. Health Department spokeswoman Claudia Hutton said the cap is declining from the original 3.5 percent increase, and from next year will be 3 percent annually on a permanent basis, under the law. Hutton said the figures in counties with small populations can be skewed by single events, such as a car crash resulting in traumatic head injuries and high Medicaid costs.
With all of this 'savings' and the so called increased revenue from the 'jobs' created by metroplex, how in the world can there be that much of tax increase? And is this actually Ms.Rooney's job? I mean is it SHE who prepares the budget? All by her lonesome? No input from the Savage woman? Am I to be led to believe that this came as a completely TOTAL shock to Suzie and the rest of the legislatures?
I could be wrong here, but it just doesn't make too much sense.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Logged
>
