Familiar gremlins, now nastier, haunt counties
The Tappan Zee Bridge, dwindling tax revenues, increasing demand on social services, public/private partnerships and tourism surfaced as topics that crossed borders at the annual Pattern for Progress President”™s Day breakfast Feb. 22 at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel.
Seven representatives from the mid-Hudson counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester sat on the dais and gave their take on depressed tax revenues and the unfunded mandates handed down from Albany they can no longer afford to pass on to the public.
County Executive William Steinhaus spoke of Dutchess”™ dwindling tax revenue, which has dropped $1.6 million for the second consecutive year. He also pointed to economic successes: a $35 million Hancock House addition at Vassar College and attracting Spectrawatt, the state”™s first solar cell manufacturer to 110,000 square feet of former IBM space in Fishkill ”“ an $80 million investment that Steinhaus says will eventually generate 150 jobs.
But Steinhaus cited challenging times ahead. “Just as a marker,” he said, “our closed (sold) residential value in 2005 was $879 million; in 2009, it was $468 million.”
Putnam County Executive Bob Bondi has seen his county”™s sales tax revenue fall 10 percent over the past year, which has been offset by reserves. “Our big concern is for what”™s going to happen in 2010,” he said. Bondi also railed against the MTA tax, saying there was not enough MTA infrastructure in Putnam or the other “quarter-pounder” counties to justify the tax on employers. “We”™d like the MTA to open the Maybrook line, which would reduce traffic on the Taconic State Parkway, something they”™ve been loathe to do, but they are taking our tax money,” said Bondi.
Bondi said Putnam is dealing with the growing number of children of undocumented aliens who are going into school districts, “an issue that is growing all over the Hudson Valley. We need to continue to provide services to those children, so they are assimilated into the community.”
Scott Vanderhoef, in his fifth term as Rockland”™s county executive, said, “It drives us crazy when so much of our budget is controlled and mandated by the state of New York, nearly 73 percent.” Rockland, like Dutchess, has trimmed its workforce and now is working with forces that are at 1985 levels.
“Our Medicaid bill ”“ just one bill ”“ takes 110 percent of our property tax,” said Vanderhoef. “We are forced to have this flawed-from-top-to-bottom program since it was introduced in 1964. Even with managed care, there are problems. Major reforms from Albany could change economic picture for every county in New York.”
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Vanderhoef said the MTA tax takes a toll on employers when it comes to create jobs, “but there are no tolls on the East River bridges.” He also said the MTA tax has already chased two potential developers away. “We are losing the fight against the state of New York.”
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Michael Hein, Ulster”™s first county executive, commented on the collegial partnerships between the representatives on the dais. “Everyone has been much more open during these difficult economic times ”“ reforms we could never perceive occurring are now happening,” he said. “Shared municipal services are one example. It is not a Democratic or Republican issue. State government has failed us for a long period of time. When 70 percent of what we do is mandated, it is unacceptable. Mandate relief from Albany is critical.”
James O”™Donnell, speaking on behalf of Orange County Executive Edward Diana, said, “Sales tax revenue is down by nearly $8 (million) to $9 million. Property taxes are down nearly $11 million the past two years, but we have not increased our property taxes and had no layoffs.”
Diana put $50,000 into the budget for management training, using IBM and a program at Orange County Community College that 34 department heads are taking part in.
“Dave Jolly, our commissioner of social services, is doing a fabulous job in coordinating Medicaid transportation to save money,” O”™Donnell said. “We instituted a bus loop to take the place of taxis that has saved $850,000 a year. We”™re in collaboration with Westchester, Rockland, Ulster, Greene, Columbia to provide busing to people who need Medicaid services. It has saved $1.2 million last year and we expect it to save $1.2 million this year.”
O”™Donnell says the Orange County Business Accelerator opened in Novembe 2009, adjacent to Stewart Airport. “The Port Authority and Stewart Airport are huge to our economic development,” he said. “We have three companies in there, and have three more in the hopper.”
Kevin Plunkett, who appeared for Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino, said, “We are only eight weeks in office. Next year, we hope we will be able to tell you how we will cure or have cured Westchester”™s problems.”
One project binds, said Plunkett: “The Tappan Zee Bridge project. It will take collaboration with every county. We do not have the answers. We know what realities of new decade are, we intend to face them with our colleagues and friends””if we face them as a region, it will be easier to achieve,” concluded Plunkett.
“We need to cross county lines and work together as a region,” said Jonathan Drapkin, president of Pattern for Progress. “It means we will have to begin to trust each other during this dark period of economic development.”
Brian Maher, new village of Walden mayor in Orange County, proposed that counties create an incentive for towns and villages to make consolidations and mergers more palatable.