Rockland County Executive Ed Day”™s 2023 budget of $812.4 million will not contain a property tax increase for the second year in a row. Once one of the most fiscally stressed counties in New York state, Day has moved from crisis budgeting in 2014 when he was first elected to a reinvesting and rebuilding budget in 2023. Speaking to members of the Rockland Business Association recently, Day announced the re-establishment of the Commissioner of General Services position to streamline services for local municipalities. Effective Dec. 1, the home energy tax will be off the taxpayers”™ bill, an initiative Westchester County has also embraced. Rockland is considering opting into recently signed legislation that will allow counties to increase income eligibility for seniors ages 65 and over and for people with disabilities from $29,000 to $50,000 annually. “”¦A direct benefit to our seniors at a time when they are having great difficult,” said Day. “We will also offer volunteer first-responders a tuition credit of $6,000 annually as a way to encourage our citizens to respond to the community”™s needs.”
Day also encouraged residents to take the threat of polio seriously. The first case of the debilitating disease in the United States in a decade was reported in Rockland in July 2022, and the County Health Department has been working vigorously to encourage the shot for all who have not yet had it or who are struggling with vaccine hesitancy, particularly after Covid. “Those of us who remember polio know what it”™s all about. It”™s a diabolical virus and the polio vaccine is the only thing that works,” said Day.
