Executives wrestle with finances

In a room full of county executives, it fell to the nun to frame the debate about mandates and taxes in terms that rang true on a personal level.

Like a banker with a sharp pencil, Sister Kathleen Sullivan, president of Dominican College in Rockland County, said, “We”™ve become a charge-and-spend society. Everybody wants everything today: the house, the new car, every conceivable gadget, whether they can afford it or not. And now they are struggling to pay for necessities like putting food on the table and putting gas in the car.

“It”™s very disturbing, Maybe it”™s time for us, not just here in New York, but every state, to realize that saving for that must-have item and spending sensibly are what made us a strong nation.Â Somewhere along the line, we”™ve lost the ability to live within our means.”

The devil, as the sister surely knows, is in the details and county chiefs have found themselves painted into a corner on taxes and expenses, if not by Old Scratch himself, then by the Legislature.

If you think school taxes are vexing, talk to some county executives from around the metropolitan area and you”™ll find they are just as hard-pressed to keep up with Albany”™s demands to provide services.

Leaders from four of the highest taxed counties ”“ Westchester, Suffolk, Orange and Rockland ”“ discussed mandates and taxes at Dominican College”™s annual county executive forum, the last of the college”™s Palisades Institute”™s series for the season, on June 10.

Approximately 150 attendees listened in Dominican”™s Rosary Hall in Orangeburg. Practicing Catholics in the room might be clutching rosary beads after listening to the rising price tag Albany puts on counties to make ends meet. “And then our state Legislature lets us know we must figure out a way to pay for them without any help,” said Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef.

Vanderhoef told the business community that “71 percent of Rockland”™s budget is made up of costs mandated by the state.” And while Rockland, according to Vanderhoef, enjoys the lowest tax rate in the state outside of New York City, it has been able to keep taxes down by increasing sales tax revenue and restraining expenditures.Â “Medicaid,” said Vanderhoef, “accounts for the greatest proportion of Â our mandated costs.” Â Rockland has placed a cap on its Medicaid spending, according to Vanderhoef”™s 2008 State of Rockland County address.

Westchester County executive Andrew Spano countered that dealing with the state was “A game of Russian roulette … the state doesn”™t give us the money, but they tell us what they want us to do. Our county”™s Medicaid and jail mandates are ridiculous and we have no control over either.”

Spano said all county executivess sharing the platform faced the same problems: the need for affordable housing; a way to make their counties cleaner and greener; andÂ the need for a better transportation. “Rather than building more roads, let”™s put the money into public transportation,” said Spano. “If it becomes uncomfortable for people to drive, they”™ll look to mass transit. On my way here, I passed hundreds of cars with a single driver.”

Spano also expressed some unhappiness with the Port Authority”™s purchase of Stewart International Airport, saying Westchester didn”™t need more people traveling through it to get to another airport. Â (While no one debated Spano”™s remark, the Port Authority said it based its decision to buyÂ Stewart was on its potentialÂ catchment area of 11 million people who live within one hour of its New Windsor location as well as its central location in the Boston-Washington corridor, which that includes Westchester.

Spano lamented the souring American dream: “If we could convince everyone to be minimalists, it would be wonderful. We can”™t depend on the press””the general public doesn”™t trust us ”“ or the media.”

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, a newcomer to the yearly discussion panel, but not to its problems; his Long Island county, in order to keep spending to a minimum, made funding cuts that left some unhappy: one of those Â was the DARE Program, which Levy said Â proved to be “fruitless.”Â Cutting county staff through early retirement and Â a reduction in hiring has also proved to be another way to control costs.

“Spending on the state level, however, has gone through the roof,” said Levy. “They shift costs to the counties. Schools got record dollars in aid this year, but local taxpayers are being asked to pay the bill. The ”˜property tax cap”™ is an easy way for the state to tell us to cap taxes. But then counties end up passing along those costs, too, where are the real savings for the property taxpayer?”

Levy, not too keen on the Albany”™s “three men in a room, middle of the night decision making,” suggested the state hold another constitutional convention and reckon with pork projects and the way the state”™s money is currently managed. He advocated for ending the concept of mandatory arbitration, saying the average police officer in Suffolk earns $144,000 a year. Levy supports the Downstate Suburban Housing Initiative, calling it “a bill that could be the most revolutionary move since SONYMAE in the 1970s.”

And while consolidating school districts may not be politically unpalatable, Levy suggested that the 69 school districts in his own county start looking to consolidate some services, like landscaping and similar services that can be let to the most competitive bidder. There was no disagreement from his fellow executives on that issue, who also tackle the challenge of a plethora of school districts trying to outdo ”“ and seemingly to outspend ”“ each other.

Last up at the political plate was Orange County Executive Ed Diana, who said he and county colleagues, as well as the state, need to tackle problems with a regional approach. In Orange”™s case, said Diana, “75 percent of the county”™s budget is comprised of Â state mandates. We were able to balance our own county budget, but had to work with $2 million less. To do that, we stopped purchasing nonessential equipment, put in travel restrictions, currently have a hiring freeze and have started to sell outdated equipment on e-Bay. It may not sound like much, but it brought Â in another $62,000 to the county.”

Diana suggested shared municipal services, particularly employing a sole county assessor rather than individual town and village assessors, would be another cost-saving method. Â Diana said county executives must make tough decisions to keep spending down, “and we can”™t worry about being elected. State mandates need to be controlled so that we can control our own spending, but many of these suggestions end up in turf wars.”

Clearly, all four county leaders are finding it more challenging to give the public what it wants without having to raise taxes and without increased aid from Albany. The four advocated the use of public-private partnerships to get massive infrastructure needs met, particularly the rebuilding of the Tappan Zee Bridge and the creation of a one-seat ride into Manhattan for Orange and Rockland residents. “The people who built the Tappan Zee Bridge 50 years ago clearly weren”™t thinking this area would boom,” said Spano. “Now, how do get a new bridge built and a include mass transit componentÂ on it when there”™s no money for it?”

After the paparazzi were satisfied and the panel rushed to beat traffic back to their respective county seats,Â Levy lingered behind to talk about the notion of a state constitutionalÂ convention. “This is something we should be doing every 10 years. We had one in the 1970s and the idea was resurrected during the Cuomo administration but shot down by the teachers”™ union. There hasn”™t been an attempt to have one again since then.

“The Legislature would have to request it, and they”™d also have to approve it, but I think the time”™s come for the state to start doing business more efficiently,” Levy said. “The counties and the people Â are overwhelmed.”