Updating its 2002 study on economics and quality of living, the Dyson Foundation released Many Voices One Valley Oct. 8.
Some surprising finds ”¦ or perhaps not so surprising: The cost of health care, which ranked third in concern in 2002, now ranks first for those participating in the study.
Keeping businesses in the area, reducing taxes and improving the quality of the area”™s public schools followed in spots two through four. The fifth most-cited concern was the inability to afford health insurance, inexorably linking itself to residents”™ top priority: affordable health care.
Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (www.cbpp,org), stated, “The number of uninsured Americans reached an all-time high in 2005. It is sobering that 5.4 million more people lacked health insurance in 2005 than in the recession year of 2001, primarily because of the erosion of employee-based insurance.”
With nearly 47 million uninsured people in America, emergency rooms have become the “primary-care physician” for those without insurance, adding to spiraling costs and to the need for nonprofit hospitals to increase the size and scope of their emergency services to meet the needs of those coming through the emergency room door. It”™s a recipe for disaster when factoring in the nursing shortage, inadequate Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates and the costs passed on to others as the result.
Housing ”“ both affordable and otherwise ”“ was another  major concern to participants. Putnam County ranked first among counties with the most homeowners (82 percent) and Greene County the most affordable, with the average home costing $170,000.
More than half of the Hudson Valley residents who participated in the study said their communities weren”™t doing enough to make homeownership possible, and on a scale of one to 10, 31 per cent of residents gave a 10 when it came to the need for affordable housing. Paradoxically, homelessness ranked last in the list of concerns, although the rate of homelessness among veterans continues to climb.
In a meeting of several county executives held earlier this year at Dominican College in Orangeburg, Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano suggested the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs convert its Montrose campus to housing for homeless veterans, a sentiment shared by Putnam County Executive Robert Bondi, and Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus.
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The study included Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam and Ulster counties, questioning 4,300 people age 18 and older who were interviewed in a two-month period in spring 2007. The survey data, gathered by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, acknowledge a margin of error of 1.5 percent.
While Westchester and Sullivan counties were not included in the study, the problems addressed are on their radars, too.
“I think it”™s a real mandate for our leaders, both elected and community, to work on the topics that were a major concern for our residents: health care, keeping business in the area and rising taxes,” said Nancy Proyect, executive director of the Orange County Citizens Foundation (www.occf-ny.org), which recently released its own report on Orange County. It was the nonprofit”™s first in-depth quality-of-life study. It was funded by money procured by state Sen. William Larkin, the Dyson Foundation and JPMorgan Chase.
“The problem of being able to afford health care and housing, and the need for high-paying jobs, is a problem for every county that participated in the study,” said Proyect. “In our case, Orange County has seen a 4.25 percent increase in wages, but a 19 percent increase in the cost of housing. The numbers are just not sustainable.”
To read the 258-page report in its entirety, visit
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