With a touch of fanfare, new Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro last week gave his first State of the County address at Beacon High School. It was also a first for the southern Dutchess city where Molinaro attended elementary school.
After recognizing emergency service workers and fire departments for their combined efforts at the recent fire in Poughkeepsie that took the lives of three college students, Molinaro got down to the business of the county”™s current economic condition and budget deficit.
He cited the rising demand on local health and human service agencies, with homeowner applications for Home Energy Assistance Program up 67 percent in 2011 and the Department of Mental Hygiene”™s Help Line up 62 percent in comparison with the departments”™ 2007 figures.
The county”™s Department of Social Services”™ caseload exceeded 43,000, compared with 28,000 in 2007. The dramatic increase, said Molinaro, showed how the recession has taken a toll on county residents.
Calling for relief from mandates, “Medicaid remains the single largest mandated program for county government,” Molinaro said, “and is the number one priority for counties across the state.”
The 2012 adopted county budget of $411 million was balanced by $24.3 million appropriated from the year-end audited general fund balance, leaving the county with a potential $24.3 million budget gap in 2013. The new budget includes $41 million for the Medicaid program and represents more than 40 percent of the county”™s property taxes.
Additionally, said Molinaro, “for the fourth consecutive year, we are confronted with a decreasing county tax base. Our 2012 true value assessment is 17 percent lower ”“ $6.5 billion less ”“ since 2008. This loss in the tax base is due to reductions in home values, losses in the commercial construction, farms ceasing operation, storefronts closing and a deterioration of the underpinnings of our local economy.”
Molinaro told the audience that plans are under way to change Poughkeepsie”™s Market Street into a two-way thoroughfare to help revitalize the downtown. In addition, projects along the city”™s waterfront, including connecting the Dutchess Rail Trail to the Walkway over the Hudson and to Ulster”™s Rail Trail should help to significantly improve tourism dollars.
He took the state of country address as an opportunity to introduce Ron Hicks, former president of the Rockland Economic Development Corp., as his new deputy commissioner for strategic planning and economic development. He also announced the formation of a new program, “4R Future ”“ reform, retain, reinvest, reinvent ”“ Economic Development Cabinet.”4RFuture will be comprised of county employees from several departments. Molinaro told listeners its goal would be to  “strategize on increasing efficiencies and improving services and l streamline regulatory and permitting processes …reforming the way Dutchess County works with the business community and responds to local governments.”
