In a vote split along party lines, the Westchester County Board of Legislators last week adopted a $1.77 billion county operating budget for 2009 that will raise the countywide property tax levy by 1.77 percent. Swayed by public critics, the board”™s Democratic majority and County Executive Andrew J. Spano withdrew pay raises in 2009 and retroactive raises this year for all non-union management employees.  Â
Prior to the vote, county officials”™ methods in preparing the budget and relative haste in adopting it were questioned by a team of accountants that analyzed the spending plan for one of the county”™s leading business organizations.
The adopted budget, opposed by all four Republicans on the 17-member board, reduced Spano”™s proposed spending plan by $1.53 million. It will result in no layoffs of county workers although 52 unfilled positions will be eliminated.
Board Chairman William J. Ryan noted the budget maintains health and human services and adequately funds such vital operational areas as public safety, emergency services, transportation, public works and environmental facilities.
“We”™re all affected by this economic recession,” Ryan said. “Things are likely to get worse and many people are going to have a tough time. It”™s important for government to keep the safety net in place, carry out its other important functions and save taxpayer money in the process.”Â
As part of that safety net, legislators restored funding for programs and services provided by non-profit contract agencies that were either eliminated or reduced in Spano”™s proposed budget. Those include community services, such as neighborhood health centers; child care; early childhood services; assistance to victims of domestic violence; eviction prevention assistance; immigrant outreach for health, education, housing and employment; legal aid for the indigent; arts and culture; economic development and environmental protection.Â
County Legislator José Alvarado, D-Yonkers, budget and appropriations committee chairman, said the county will continue to share county sales tax revenue with local municipalities and school districts, which totaled $102 million in aid over the last year. Westchester is the only county in the state that shares sales tax revenue with its local governments and school districts.
The budget also continues the county”™s financial commitment to Westchester Medical Center. Legislators prior to the budget vote approved a 10-year cooperation agreement that steadily decreases the medical center”™s reliance on county support as it moves toward financial autonomy.
Spano said he had slashed his proposed budget by $11 million, cutting overtime, equipment and supplies, in an effort to meet the public”™s demand for no tax levy increase at all. Withdrawing proposed retroactive salary increases for county commissioners, directors and other managers was an added step toward that goal, he said. Â Â Â Â Â Â
Spano said he hoped local governments and school districts will look to the county “as a model for holding down taxes in this troubled economy.” He offered the county”™s assistance in helping them cut and reduce expenses where possible.
In the business community, Westchester County Association (WCA) President William M. Mooney Jr. said those municipal and school district budgets will be closely examined by the group he heads, which last year formed its Property Tax Reform Alliance.
A 12-member volunteer team of certified public accountants that analyzed the county”™s proposed budget for the WCA questioned the underlying assumptions upon which its numbers were based. Team leader Howard Klein, managing partner of Eisman, Zucker, Klein & Ruttenberg L.L.P. in White Plains and a WCA director, noted, for example, the budget assumes that sales tax, hotel tax and other revenues will increase in 2009, an assumption he called “potentially unrealistic” given the current economy.
The CPAs also questioned the county practice of basing the coming year”™s budget on income and expenditures of the prior year without a comprehensive review of the worthiness and utility of existing programs.
Team members also asked why Westchester lacks an independent elected comptroller, as Nassau County and New York City have, to provide third-party overview of the budget process.
Mooney said the volunteers”™ work “provides a platform upon which we will expand our review of the budget process and be able to assure greater public understanding of and participation in future budgets.”
