With Rockland”™s employee numbers down to what they were in 1980, County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef discussed ways for Rockland ”“ and the state ”“ to ease the ever-growing mandate burden on counties.
Vanderhoef addressed more than 150 Rockland Business Association members and guests at the newly named Paramount Country Club (the former Dellwood Country Club) in New City March 18, saying the county “needs to shift the burden elsewhere.” That entails taking 700 public workers at the county”™s nursing home, Summit Park, off the county”™s payroll and putting them in the private sector would ease the crunch for taxpayers.
Vanderhoef says the transition from public to private nursing home has been done in several counties, and it”™s worked.
“We are struggling with mandates ”“ 110 percent of our property taxes go to fund Medicaid ”“ it”™s just not sustainable.” The county is considering creating a public-benefit corporation to take over the operation of the nursing home or to sell it privately. “There are health care agencies that can do this job much better than the county can,” Vanderhoef said.
Rockland”™s $18 million deficit for 2011 “needs to be addressed,” he said, citing state mandates, particularly Medicaid and the MTA payroll tax as just a few of the reasons for the shortfall.
One of the ways the county has cut back on expenses is by eliminating workers through early retirement or attrition. Vanderhoef reiterated the privatizing of the county”™s nursing home as another way the county could close its budget gap further.
Unemployment has gone down to 7.1 percent, the third lowest in the state, but Vanderhoef said, “It”™s still too high … 97 percent of the firms here employ 20 or less people. We created 6,800 new jobs and reduced 3,900 jobs in the government sector ”“ good news for property owners, because it means a reduction in taxes.” But a property tax cap for homeowners, or mandate relief from the state, does not look like it will come easily, he said.
Pfizer is providing a bit of optimism for the big business picture: “They are not moving out one of their manufacturing components until 2018,” said Vanderhoef, “and it also plans to grow its research and development center to be an important part of the community.” Health care, retail and services, in that order, are the top three sectors where the bulk of the county”™s revenue and salaries are generated. Rockland saw a 10 percent jump in sales taxes collected in 2010.
Vanderhoef lamented the end of the Empire Zone, saying that Rockland only had the program for four years ”“ from 2006 to 2010 ”“ “but we worked with 40 different companies and attracted 24 new ones to Rockland, adding 1,600 new jobs. ”
No mention was made of Gov. Andrew Cuomo”™s proposed economic regional councils or the state”™s new Excelsior Program. The state Legislature has just a week left to have the 2011-12 budget on Cuomo”™s desk.
With Rockland”™s overall $33 million deficit, Vanderhoef said the cost of mandates is unsustainable, “with 110 percent of our property taxes going to Medicaid … Albany is trying to cap taxes and reduce mandates.” The Medicaid Task Force and the Mandate Relief Task Force are good concepts, but “what the Medicaid Task Force is telling us is utterly worthless,” said Rockland”™s longtime executive. “”˜Mandates aren”™t good”™”“ OK, we know that. And we can”™t have a two percent tax cap on county property tax if it means an automatic three percent increase in Medicaid each year.”
“We are fortunate that we have a Legislature in this county that works together ”“ whether they are Republicans or Democrats ”“ they know how to get the peoples”™ business done. Unlike Albany or Washington, we do know how to work together.”
Six cents of every dollar of county revenue goes to the county with the remaining 94 cents going to Medicaid, Vanderhoef told Esther Schulman of Rockland ARC after his presentation.
“With numbers like that, we need more than just talk from Albany. We need real mandate relief and have Medicaid money coming from FMAP (the federal Medicaid program) rather than from county coffers. We can”™t afford the program nor the mandates imposed by Albany. If Albany thinks the nine mandates they”™ve put on the counties are a good idea, they should pay for them and get them off our backs.”
With the majority of states in the United States trying to figure out a way to balance their budgets, more and more creative options are being considered.
This option of taking public workers and turning them into private employee’s is catching on in many states, and seems to be a trend.
Bottom line- whether its New York or Ohio, each state must balance their budget and more ideas need to be generated on how to accomplish this task.