$2.367B operating budget for Westchester

Westchester County Executive George Latimer has formally submitted the proposed 2023 Operating Budget of $2.367 billion to the county’s Board of Legislators. The operating budget follows the previously-submitted capital projects budget for 2023 of $662.5 million.

The operating budget includes a $6 million cut in the county’s property tax levy, which had previously been announced by Latimer. It’s the fourth consecutive property tax cut under his administration and represents a total reduction of $17 million in the tax levy since he took office.

On the afternoon of Nov. 10 at the County Office Building in White Plains, Latimer handed a copy of the proposed operating budget to Catherine Borgia, chairperson of the County Board of Legislators.

“We are looking forward to starting on Monday doing our review of every single page of this budget,” Borgia said. “I confess to being something of a math nerd but I do believe that as prosaic as the budget review process is there is poetry in it because a budget is a physical plan to articulate and achieve your values and the values of Westchester County, I think, are very strong.”

The Board of Legislators can propose changes in the budget, and the budget process typically includes negotiations between the legislature and the administration. If there is an impasse regarding a change made by the legislature, the county executive can exercise a veto.

“This budget comes at a time when Westchester residents and Americans in general have an uneasiness, and that uneasiness comes from issues that are locally-based but even much more so nationally-based and perhaps internationally-based,” Latimer said. “The war in Ukraine continues on, we look at an international economic concern in the aftermath of the heart of Covid, although Covid is not gone from our consciousness. Issues of fear of crime, issues of fear of loss of various rights that people have come to accept for many, many years, that creates an uneasiness in our society. A county government does not necessarily deal with the root causes of those issues but we have to live and govern in that climate.”

The new budget comes as the county is closing 2022 with a projected $65.9 million operating surplus. The 2023 budget does not propose borrowing to pay for tax certioraris, does not use the fund balance, and does not borrow to cover pension costs.

 “We have cut taxes but we have also added $1 million to food security programs that serve 100 pantries, we have increased funding for homeless shelter contracts, and we have put in $500,000 for New Rochelle Family Court support services,” Latimer said.

The Human Rights Commission is due to receive $1.3 million, which includes the cost of hiring an additional investigator. Total Youth Bureau funding is $4.7 million.

At a time when crime became a major issue in off-year election campaigns around the county, the new county budget provides a record $260.9 million in funding for the Department of Public Safety, Department of Corrections and Department of Probation.

The county’s economic development department is allocated $6 million in the 2023 Operating Budget, including $1.4 million for the Downtown Improvement Grant Program.

The Westchester County Health Department is due to receive $220.8 million with $17.2 million for the Department of Community Mental Health.

The budget includes $60.3 million for parks and recreation. A combined $28 million has been slotted for structural improvements at the Ice Casino at Playland in Rye and the Playland Amusement Park. Additionally, $7 million has been allocated for Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center, and $3.3 million for Cranberry Lake Preserve improvements.

“It’s in the way that we determine to spend money that we show what our real policy priorities are and if we say that we’re for fighting crime but it’s rhetoric that isn’t effective,” Latimer said. “If we say we’re for helping people but there’s no backup to deliver that help then it’s just rhetoric.”