SCHENECTADY COUNTY Counties: Loss of state aid would hit hard Group estimates costs would rise by $77M BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s Executive Budget reduces aid and shifts state costs totaling millions to counties while offering to cap their preschool special education program costs and allowing them to raise revenues through local fees, according to an analysis by a state association. The New York State Association of Counties argues, however, that the cap and revenue enhancements do not offset the shift in state costs to the counties. The association estimates counties will see their costs increase by $77.2 million over the next two years. “Many of the counties that have analyzed the budget say the positive impact of the cap does not offset the negative impacts for juvenile placements, loss of highway aid, the growth of Medicaid costs and more,” said association spokesman Mark Lavigne. New York state Division of Budget spokesman Matt Anderson said the governor’s budget will save counties $125 million this year, on top of the $390 million they are saving by the state’s cap on local Medicaid costs and its takeover of the Family Health Plus program costs. “You have to look at the budget overall, not just these limited pieces,” Anderson said. The governor’s budget now goes to the state Legislature for debate. Both houses traditionally offer their own budgets and the final budget, which is supposed to be adopted by April 1, reflects a compromise. Schenectady County Legislator Philip Fields, D-Schenectady, chairman of the Legislature’s Finance Committee, said he agrees with the state association’s analysis and that the governor’s budget will exacerbate the county’s already fragile financial condition. Fields said the county must deal with the loss of nearly $1 million in state and federal revenue that occurred in 2007 and is carrying over into 2008. “We have to take action on these constraints outside of the state budget,” he said. “There are some serious negative impacts for the county.” As proposed by Spitzer, counties would pay 2 percent more and the state 2 percent less toward the cost of family assistance and safety net welfare programs and counties would pay the full cost to place youths into detention programs, said Lavigne. Schenectady County’s 2008 adopted budget is $235 million; social service programs account for $136 million of this total. The governor’s budget would increase Schenectady County welfare costs by $343,842, Montgomery’s by $86,214, Saratoga’s by $91,894, Fulton’s by $68,103, Schoharie’s by $26,985 and Albany’s by $711,811, the association said. The state currently reimburses counties 50 percent of juvenile placement costs. In Schenectady County’s case, state aid offsets half of the more than $2.2 million the county spent in 2007, and is expected to cover the $2.3 million it has budgeted for this year for placements. The governor’s budget also reduces aid to community colleges and county-run nursing homes and for highway maintenance, the association said. Schenectady County Community College would lose approximately $150,000 in state aid under the governor’s budget proposal, said SCCC President Gabe Basil. The county would lose $30,000 in highway maintenance aid. Lavigne was unable to estimate the impact of the governor’s budget on the Glendale Home, as Schenectady County plans to build a new nursing home. However, he said, “all counties with homes are all operating in deficits and those deficits are burdens on local property taxpayers. This budget cuts aid to nursing homes.” At the same time, Spitzer’s budget caps county preschool special education program costs for three years, helps reduce operating costs for county jails and allows counties to increase document recording fees through their clerk offices. The governor’s office estimates Schenectady County could generate $900,000 in revenue by increasing document fee charges. The county proposed to spend $7.9 million on preschool special education needs this year, an increase of $550,000 over 2007’s expenditure. Schenectady County Legislator Vincent DiCerbo, D-Schenectady, chairman of the Legislature’s Economic Development Committee, said the county “cannot absorb those hits by ourselves. This is the continuing saga of the state balancing the budget on the backs of county taxpayers.” DiCerbo said the time has come for local officials to seriously consider consolidating programs and services across the county. “People have to understand we cannot afford to pay for the various layers of government in the county anymore,” he said. Assemblyman George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, said cost shifts in the governor’s budget “come at a time when counties have enacted their budgets. The counties will have to cut costs or raises taxes to make them up.”
Finally the truth that half of the budget in Schdy goes to Social Services, the give a way program. Let's start to run our government the same way that we have had to learn to balance our own individual budgets, if you don't have the money to fund or spend do without the item or program.
SCHENECTADY COUNTY State, federal cuts will hurt county Millions in aid expected to be lost BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Schenectady County will lose $4.4 million in state aid this year and in 2009, nearly triple what was anticipated in May, according to an analysis by County Manager Kathleen Rooney. Another $1 million in federal aid cuts is anticipated. Rooney presented the analysis to county legislators Tuesday night, addressing the local effects of $1 billion in total cuts the state Legislature approved in a special session in August. The update follows the one she gave after the state adopted its budget in May, which was the early indication of looming problems. The new state cuts will hit the county well into its current budget year. The county adopted a $281 million budget in November, with the fiscal year beginning Jan. 1. The biggest hit is to the countyowned Glendale Home, a skilled nursing facility for low-income residents. The county will lose more than $2 million through the reduction this year and the elimination next year of a state subsidy called the Public Facilities Grant. Without the state grant, the county’s subsidy to Glendale, which tops $7 million annually, is likely to increase, officials said. Rooney said the magnitude of the state aid cuts means “everything is on table” to balance the county’s budget for 2009. She will present a tentative budget to the Legislature by Oct. 1. The Legislature must adopt a 2009 budget by Nov. 1. The county will lose more than $1.5 million this year as a direct result of action the state Legislature took in August to trim $1 billion in its budget in anticipation of growing deficits. In 2009, the county will see a further reduction of at least $2.9 million in state aid. The non-Glendale cuts affect reimbursements to the county to house state inmates at the jail, for child welfare, public safety and Medicaid. In addition to state cuts, the county will lose more than $1 million in federal aid this year and in 2009, Rooney said. In a news release, county Legislator Martin Finn, D-Niskayuna, called on the state to restore the cuts. He sponsored legislation to that effect Tuesday night. Otherwise, he said, the county Legislature would have to consider a significant property tax increase or the elimination of non-mandated programs, such as the county library system, Glendale and programs for the aging and highway maintenance. He is seeking re-election in District 3, which consists of Niskayuna and Glenville. Finn acknowledged the state Legislature is not likely to restore the cuts this year. “But is the [county] legislation going to point out an issue to them? Yes it will. We can’t cut funding at the state level and say, ‘Counties, you deal with it,’ ” he said. Neither Rooney nor the Legislature have proposed program or service reductions as of yet, Finn said. “We are still talking about it. Cutting services is a last resort.” Legislators will use Rooney’s tentative budget as a starting point for further decisions, Finn said. “She will make her first crack at budget and then the Legislature will deal with it from there. It’s going to be tough and it will not be an easy thing to deal with,” he said. Republican Tim Macfarlane, who is challenging Finn for the legislative seat, said he had not seen the state aid cuts but called them disastrous, based on a description provided to him. “I know the county was denied federal money for work related to a series of rainstorms in the summer and the county is still in a hole from last year. I will be curious to see how the Democrats will handle the problem,” Macfarlane said. Macfarlane said asking the state for money is not a solution to the problem and said the county should consider having Ellis Hospital take over Glendale’s operations. “Our beds are already there,” he said. County Legislator Vincent DiCerbo, D-Schenectady, called the state aid cuts devastating. “I don’t know how we are going to make those revenue losses up without curtailing services dramatically,” he said. “No one can realistically look at losing another $2.5 million and say trimming around the edges is a viable option.”
SCHENECTADY COUNTY Budget expected to contain steep cuts Tax increase likely to offset aid, revenue losses BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.
County Manager Kathleen Rooney will present a 2009 tentative budget in two weeks containing significant cuts in non-mandated programs and a tax increase, aimed at offsetting losses in state and federal aid, county legislators said Monday. She plans to present her working budget Oct. 1. Schenectady County legislators must adopt a budget by Nov. 1. “We are lowering the cost of government and changing the way we are doing business in Schenectady County,” said Legislator Philip Fields, D-Schenectady, chairman of the Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee. He mentioned the need for the county to reduce its reliance on using outside contractors to provide certain services. County Legislator and Majority Leader Gary Hughes, D-Schenectady, said “people are going to see some significant cuts in significant programs,” particularly in non-mandated areas of the budget. These include the Glendale Home, the county-funded public library system, programs for youths and senior citizens and highway maintenance. The legislators would not reveal specific programs cuts and refused to say whether layoffs would be part of their budget deliberations. In 2007, the county eliminated 15 positions, some through layoffs, as part of an effort to reduce an initial $5.6 million increase in the property tax levy by some $3 million for the current $283 million budget. The county employs about 1,200 full- and part-time staff. In recent years, it has reduced its workforce by some 100 positions, mostly through attrition. “My expectation is that there will be a lot of people sharing the pain of these budget cuts. There are no sacred cows,” Hughes said. Several county department heads, whose programs would likely see reductions, said they have not heard back from Rooney on the need to make significant cuts, as of Monday. No one interviewed would reveal the proposed tax increase figure. Rooney did not return a phone call for comment. However, one county legislator said the loss of aid to the Glendale nursing home alone would translate into a 5 percent property tax increase. In total, the county will lose more than $5 million in state and federal aid through 2009. “We took a significant cut in state aid,” Hughes said. “By the time we will adopt the budget, we will have done the best we can to have spread the pain of reduced state revenues as fairly and justly as you possibly can.” Fields said the county has few options when dealing with revenue losses as dramatic as experienced this year. “The only way to balance the budget is by cuts, using available surpluses and finding new revenues streams, which come from increasing taxes,” he said. Hughes said the 2009 budget will be a test for legislators. “This is a tough year and is one of those years when you learn the meaning for public service,” he said. “We will have to do the right thing in this fiscal crisis. And the right thing for me is to find the balance between cutting programs and increasing taxes.” The subject has already become a political football. Minority Leader Robert Farley, R-Glenville, said Democrats, who took control of the Legislature in 2004, have raised taxes and spending consistently since. “We obviously have a major league spending problem and they have been spending far too much and taxing far too much,” Farley said. “We can easily cut $2 million from the budget by eliminating their patronage programs and appointees.” Mark Lavigne, spokesman for the state Association of Counties, said Schenectady County’s fiscal problems cannot be tied exclusively to politics. “Schenectady County is by no means alone in this fiscal challenge. Counties across the state are responding to reductions in state aid, to unpredictable sales tax revenues, to increases in personnel and fuel cuts and to increased Medicaid costs by making program cuts, putting in hiring freezes and, in some counties, increasing taxes.”
“We are lowering the cost of government and changing the way we are doing business in Schenectady County,” said Legislator Philip Fields, D-Schenectady, chairman of the Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee.
If they can lower the cost of government this year, why couldn't they do it last year and the year before that and the year before that? Do they seriously thing we enjoy and wanted to pay for the high cost of government year after year? They should have "made a change" long ago instead of adding to the problem. All they did was keep adding programs and keep raising the taxes to pay for them. Did they really think this practice wasn't going to catch up with them? Or should I say us? We better start saving whatever pennies are left over to pay for this total screw up.
I predict that the Democratic controlled County Legislature will cut public services beginning with the Sheriff's Road Patrol in Princetown and Duanesburg, reduce the budget of the county highway department that maintains our needed infrastructure, and increase property taxes (and perhaps the county sales tax) while retaining those patronage positions that were filled by both parties over the years. There will be no effort to identify waste and fraud in social services. Financing of non-profits (including Proctor's Theatre) will not be scaled back. Lucrative contracts with favored contractors and campaign contributors will continue.
It is time for the tax and spend majority party members of the Schenectady County Legislature to be shown the exits. Don't look, however, for the Democratic-controlled Schenectady County Conservative party to support and endorse the campaigns of fiscal conservatives.
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