Calling county legislators”™ adopted budget for 2011 “a financial disaster,” Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino signed 247 line-item vetoes of expenses and revenues added to his proposed executive budget by lawmakers this month.
Democrats, who hold 12 of 17 seats on the county Board of Legislators, have the two-thirds majority needed to override the Republican executive”™s vetoes. As the Business Journal went to press, the board was scheduled to meet Dec. 23. Legislators must approve a final budget by Dec. 27.
Astorino in his approximately $1.79-billion executive budget sent to lawmakers in early November proposed to reduce the county property tax levy by 1 percent, cut operating expenses by $32.7 million and reduce the county work force by 12 percent or 705 positions, including 226 layoffs.
The board”™s Democratic majority countered Astorino”™s proposal with their own $1.79-billion plan that would reduce the tax levy by 2 percent, cut operating expenses by $28.5 million and trim the county work force by 10 percent, with about 95 layoffs. The board adopted that plan Dec. 10 by a 16-1 vote, with one Democrat opposed.
Democratic leaders called the adopted budget a more fiscally responsible alternative to Astorino”™s spending plan and said it offered greater tax relief and did not rely on “one-shot gimmicks, borrowed or overestimated revenues.” The adopted budget also would restore public safety, health and other services cut by Astorino that legislators said are critical to the county”™s social safety net and working families.
“This budget right-sizes government, and not capsizes it,” said Board of Legislators Chairman Kenneth W. Jenkins, D-Yonkers.
“I commend the county board for changing direction for the first time in a long time in giving some tax relief,” Astorino said at a Dec. 15 press conference. He went on, though, to criticize the adopted budget as riddled with “phony revenues, wasteful spending and unfunded liabilities” that could imperil the county”™s sterling triple-A rating with credit rating agencies.
The same criticisms of the legislators”™ spending plan were voiced by leaders of the county”™s largest business groups, The Business Council of Westchester and Westchester County Association, at public hearings prior to the board vote. Criticized by business leaders and board Republicans for raiding the county piggybank by drawing $10 million from the county”™s fund reserve to hold down taxes, legislators reduced that amount to $3.5 million.
“This is a financial disaster that they created,” Astorino said. “The numbers will not hold up. The budget will not pass scrutiny.”
The county executive also assailed the board”™s Democratic caucus for their closed-door, unilateral approach to his executive budget when making changes after his office”™s yearlong effort at “transparency” in the budget-making process. “The process I think took a hit and that is very troubling to me,” he said.
Astorino”™s vetoed items involve about $32.5 million in expenses and nearly $23.2 million in revenues. Also vetoed were 24 items in the county”™s capital projects budget and three in the solid waste district budget.
On the revenue side, Astorino vetoed the board”™s addition of $2.3 million in sales tax revenue in 2011 to his office”™s projected 4-percent increase from this year. To reach the county”™s projected 4.4-percent increase for 2010, the county needs an 8.5-percent jump in sales tax revenue this month, which is not likely, he said.
Astorino pointed to Nassau County and its growing fiscal crisis as a warning to Westchester government. “Nassau cut taxes without making the hard decisions on spending,” he said. “As a result, its credit rating has been downgraded and a state oversight agency may take over.”
Republican legislators on the county board in a statement said they would vote in support of Astorino”™s vetoes of questionable revenues and spending. Republicans continued to back the 2-percent drop in the tax levy in the budget they voted to adopt but criticized a “flawed and rushed” process and the secrecy with which Democrats made their budget changes.
Supporting the veto signings, The Business Council of Westchester said Astorino”™s executive budget “is fiscally responsible and makes the structural reforms that best positions Westchester for positive economic growth.”
