SCHENECTADY COUNTY Budget proposal cuts jobs, services Average homeowner would pay $125 more BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Schenectady County’s tentative $279.9 million budget for 2009, released Wednesday, includes a 13 percent tax levy increase, projected to cost residents an extra $125 annually. The budget, which now goes to the county Legislature for approval by Nov. 1, cuts 50 positions from the work force of approximately 1,200, reduces programs and services and consolidates county departments. The 2008 budget is $283.4 million. The 2009 budget is less because the county does not have to log $4.5 million in Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program grant money on its books. The state is paying that amount directly. The proposed tax levy for 2009 is $68.4 million, a 12.9 percent increase. The $125 tax increase is based on a home valued at $150,000 and uses an average of all tax rates in the county. County Manager Kathleen Rooney called the 2009 budget the most diffi cult one she has put together in years. Revenue projections for next year show little or no growth in sales tax and declines in mortgage recording fees and interest income. There is also fear the state and federal governments will cut aid, requiring the county to absorb additional costs. Rooney proposed an austere capital budget. It focuses on nine projects, most dealing with equipment replacement, totaling $2.6 million. The plan mentions nothing about an addition to the Schenectady County Public Library or renovations to the TrustCo Building on Erie Boulevard, which the county purchased for $2.4 million in 2005. The county wants to turn it into county offi ces and renovate the current county office building into court space to meet a state mandate to fix county court facilities. “This budget reflects the fiscal dilemma facing Schenectady County and other counties across New York state,” Rooney said in a news release. “We are facing year upon year of ever-increasing state-mandated costs that currently consume more than 75 percent of the total property and sales tax revenues retained by the county.” She said these costs total approximately $94.1 million in 2009, an increase of more than $5 million from the current year and $19 million since 2005. The tentative budget itself represents a 1.2 percent increase over this year’s budget, a growth below the rate of inflation. At the same time, the county witnessed cost increases in programs and services above the rate of inflation, Rooney said. The county, for instance, had to follow a state mandate to increase the number of corrections officers at the jail. The county is hiring 12 officers in 2009 at a cost of $563,000. It will hire 12 additional officers in 2010. Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage, D-Niskayuna, called the manager’s budget “disheartening” and said the Legislature will fi nd ways to trim further. Majority Leader Gary Hughes, DSchenectady, said county legislators will ask the state Legislature to pay for “state programs and mandates by increasing income taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers.” Minority Leader Robert Farley, R-Glenville, said Democrats were guilty of fiscal mismanagement, saying they took “the county from a $28 million surplus, with a $45 million real property tax burden, to a dangerously low surplus with a $68 million tax burden.” Farley added: “In order to fund their out-of-control patronage and liberal programs, they have increased spending in the county budget from $180 million to $279 million.” Farley said he was incensed by being shut out of the budget process. Hughes said he, Savage and a group of Democrats worked closely with Rooney in developing the budget; Republicans were not in the circle. At a Democratic caucus several weeks ago, a source said, legislative leaders outlined Rooney’s proposed budget, telling members to expect a double-digit percentage of tax increase. Farley said Rooney and her fi - nance staff refused to provide Republican members of the county Legislature with any budget fi gures or amounts of projected tax increases. “Susan Savage and her Democratic legislators have intentionally kept duly elected Republican members in the dark, in an attempt to control spin and hide their mismanagement,” Farley said. Joe Suhrada, R-Rotterdam, said the problem with the budget is structural and goes back years. “The fact that we even have a PR man and an events coordinator and umpteen clerks in the county Legislature illustrate that,” he said. The county hired a director of communications this year at a salary of $60,000. Union representatives were upset the position was filled while other positions in the county went unfilled. “No one seems to want to exercise small business common sense, which is to save up for a rainy day and stop spending,” Suhrada said. Rooney, Savage and Hughes blamed state mandates for the high cost of government. Hughes said in a news release: “County taxpayers need to connect the dots and understand that there is a direct relationship between what happens at the state capital and the property tax bill that arrives in their mailbox.” While lambasting mandates, the county is continuing to support the Glendale Home. The skilled nursing facility serves some 220 residents, many of them indigent. This non-mandated program will require a county subsidy of $4.8 million in 2009, down from $7.4 million this year. The decrease is due to the allocation of a onetime payment of $5.5 million by the federal government. Otherwise the subsidy would have been approximately $7 million. The county will also use the federal payment and another $3 million grant to offset Glendale subsidies estimated at $7.7 million in 2010 and $8.9 million in 2011. “By 2012, the financial impact would be devastating should Glendale remain operating in the current facility,” Rooney said. “The county must act in order to prevent a material negative impact in 2012.” A state commission recommended the county downsize 220-bed Glendale over three years to 200 beds. It recommended operations remain in the current facility, considered obsolete. The county instead wants to build a $51 million, 200-bed nursing home. The goal is to open the facility in 2010, though state approval and site selection is still pending. The county would see an increase in reimbursement after opening the new facility, although it remains unclear whether the county subsidy will decline or increase.
Schenectady County budget calls for 12.98% tax hike Officials blame proposed double-digit increase on state mandates
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer Last updated: 11:56 p.m., Wednesday, October 1, 2008
SCHENECTADY - A proposed county budget of nearly $280 million that calls for a 12.98 percent property tax increase and includes job cuts, was unveiled Wednesday by County Manager Kathleen Rooney.
She and county politicians blamed the proposed double-digit tax hike in the tentative 2009 budget in large part on state mandates they say devours about 75 percent of the total property and sales tax revenue the county collects.
As a result, the spending proposal calls for the elimination of about 50 county jobs - mostly through attrition - to soften the blow to taxpayers.
"The national economic crisis is exacerbating the mandated costs increases and negatively impacting county revenues such as sales tax, interest income and county clerk fees," she said in released statement.
County Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage called the tax hike in the manager's budget "disheartening." She too, cited the unfair burden of federal and state mandates and promised lawmakers would go through the spending plan "line by line in an effort to find additional savings for taxpayers."
County Legislators will have the next month to review the spending plan and a public hearing will be held before the panel must adopt it by Nov. 1.
Last year, lawmakers adopted a $281 million with a 4.5 percent property tax hike.
Listen, why is it that Schenectady is the only municipality that has a problem with state mandates? The entire state has them. These state mandates are just getting in the way of their created, tax paid patronage jobs and social programs which are NOT mandated by the state. THAT is what and where they need to cut.
That is the typical liberal dem move. Blame everyone and everything else. They don't take any responsibility for what THEY have done to our tax base. They never made provisions for the inevitable. They never prepared. And ya know why? Cause all they have to do is raise taxes on the hard working people of this county, while they go about spending money like drunken sailors.
And ya know what? They will continue to tax and spend. Sure they will cut back on services that will negatively effect the hard working taxpayer. They will never cut back on social programs OR the patronage jobs.
So basically......we're screwed!
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
Right Bumble. The funniest, as usual, is Gary Hughes {D-2 Schenectady} who is going to ask the State for help on mandates? A complete waste of time. Get out a hack saw.
The GOP and Angelo were totally kept in the dark in budget talks. Bipartisanship Pelosi style? No layoffs, no closing unneeded City library branches, no cuts at DSS, no cuts in Metroplex, no changes at the County Home which thanks to the County Democrats will be an unending drained on the oppressed County taxpayers.
Schenectady County is the worst run County in the State. This budget is DOA. Anyone that votes for a 13% increase in County taxes in a recession is finished. I warned you about the County Manager and the coming huge County tax increase. Some argued she was up to the task? When you don't look for cuts you don't find any. Angelo and the GOP must find savings and new revenues (look to Metrograft).
We are one of the highest taxed counties in the country and the Dems are going to raise taxes again. There comes a point where the taxpayers can't pay anymore and I think that we're almost there. I agree that patronage jobs and social programs must be cut and they have to find a way to lower the budget but in this county that will never happen.
Angelo will have a chance to get the cuts in and I am a little ticked again that they didnt call for his opinion since he is the only one who will be proposing the cuts. They have suhrad over there shooting his mouth again and he never did anything to cut before and voted for everything all along and then Farley is mad again about not getting told about some things but he isnt nice to the leaders and doesnt have the charm so what does he expect over here?
Angelo will have a chance to get the cuts in and I am a little ticked again that they didnt call for his opinion since he is the only one who will be proposing the cuts. They have suhrad over there shooting his mouth again and he never did anything to cut before and voted for everything all along and then Farley is mad again about not getting told about some things but he isnt nice to the leaders and doesnt have the charm so what does he expect over here?
Angelo, the only one? One of the few, certainly...but NOT the only one. Suhrada and Farley have certainly done this in the past.
Voted for everything all along? It's clear you have an undying support for Angelo...but why does that have to translate into discrediting others that are supporting conservative ideals.
Lastly, "charm" should have nothing to do with remaining informed on budget talks...NOTHING to do with it.
Angelo has been a great addition but let's be clear here. Joe Suhrada has been the one against the County Library addition fiasco {which wasted $500,000 on plans} and SCCC forced music department relocation. If he is not politically correct -too bad. He's been right from the beginning. We need 10 Joe Suhrada's on the County Board. There has to be a property tax reduction-sell the Home, defund Metrograft, close all City library branches-but lead or get out of the way! Nobody can afford this.
What about fellow paisan Judy D? Where is she on this huge County tax increase? Hiding like Tony J? There will plenty of time to give credit-after somebody gets some cuts passed. Either Party-any Party. This budget proposal is DOA. The County Manager should resign in disgrace. By the way in Troy, no tax increase! No Metrograft! Last time I looked Troy was still in New York State. Gimme a pitchfork.
Judy and Tony will 'of course' follow their leader. There are no conservative dems out there! And with all of their tax and spend and reckless governing, they continue to get elected. I am beginning to quit the fight and let the people of the county get exactly what they clearly want and clearly deserve.
Between last years increase and the proposed increase this year....you are talking about almost a 20% increase. almost 20%!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!
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 only time when the baldie votes against the bad things is when he follows Angelo and that is a fact and further more alothough I like him I never hear about him doing anything like cutting or coming up with the real ideas over there like Angelo has. When did he ever speak against giving out the money? Where was he when they gave the moeny away and how can you say anyone should want to shut down the library anyway these are things we need. At least out there in Delanson Judy and Chrissy came up with the money to make the lirary better and bigger but I didnt hear Suhrad or Farly do anything to make it nicer. Right Rene in Princetown? Plus some sources tell me he cut all the senior programs like th e nursding home and wants to put the elderly on the street. Why does he hate old people. If it werent for them he would be here. Another thing I learned about Suhrad is that he voted against having someone to help the vets who fought the war for us. He is even against the vetrans so how do you like him now. He is against the police and firemen and doesnt want you to have the protection against hazardous gasses and spills which would kill thousands of neighbors of ours and your kids too.. Angelo knows we need this stuff and he will find waste to cut. the others are hot air like Cicero said Howard STern of Schenectady and everyone is sick of him now.
the only time when the baldie votes against the bad things is when he follows Angelo and that is a fact and further more alothough I like him I never hear about him doing anything like cutting or coming up with the real ideas over there like Angelo has. When did he ever speak against giving out the money? Where was he when they gave the moeny away and how can you say anyone should want to shut down the library anyway these are things we need. At least out there in Delanson Judy and Chrissy came up with the money to make the lirary better and bigger but I didnt hear Suhrad or Farly do anything to make it nicer. Right Rene in Princetown? Plus some sources tell me he cut all the senior programs like th e nursding home and wants to put the elderly on the street. Why does he hate old people. If it werent for them he would be here. Another thing I learned about Suhrad is that he voted against having someone to help the vets who fought the war for us. He is even against the vetrans so how do you like him now. He is against the police and firemen and doesnt want you to have the protection against hazardous gasses and spills which would kill thousands of neighbors of ours and your kids too.. Angelo knows we need this stuff and he will find waste to cut. the others are hot air like Cicero said Howard STern of Schenectady and everyone is sick of him now.
More personal attacks ... I'm another one now blocking "sally"
Logged
Right Bumble. The funniest, as usual, is Gary Hughes {D-2 Schenectady} who is going to ask the State for help on mandates? A complete waste of time. Get out a hack saw.
