County has little to celebrate

Nobody is proud of the 2010 county budget. The contract agencies who had funding restored are grateful. The employees including the sheriff road patrols whose jobs were preserved are relieved. The 21 County Legislators who voted to adopt the budget are reluctantly satisfied with their work product, but nobody is enthusiastic enough to claim pride. After all the 2010 county budget adopted Dec. 8 raises property taxes 9.4 percent, which on top of last year’s 11 percent tax hike, raises county property taxes over 20 percent in as little as two years. There is little to celebrate about the 2010 county budget.

 Everyone agrees that the 2010 budget was a difficult budget. Legislators wrestled for weeks — and in particular two nights prior to the budget vote with legislators remaining in the chambers until midnight. Compromises were made, concessions granted. In the end sheriff road patrols and school resource officers were added back in, a half-million dollar contribution to Dutchess Community College was reinstated, all but seven jobs preserved, and contract agencies re-embraced although with decreased funding.

The Family Services Council whose programs included Crime Victim’s Assistance, Domestic Abuse Counseling, Teen Parent programs and others received 95 percent of their requested funding. The Arts Council received 78 percent, and all other contract agencies (including Cornell Cooperative Extension) received 83 percent funding. County Executive vetoes are anticipated, and a veto override meeting is scheduled for Thursday,  Dec. 17.

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A further casualty of the 2010 county budget is that Legislators voted to end the decade-old sales tax exemption on clothing under $110. This means starting January merchants will charge sales tax on all clothing purchases. Re-implementing the sales tax on clothing was meant to prevent a further increase in property tax.

The tax and spending increases should be viewed in the context of Albany enactments. The state charged Dutchess County an unprecedented $5 million for contributions to the state retirement fund, as well as an additional $5 million in unfunded mandates. This pass down expense had to be absorbed by the county, and county legislators did the right thing in not passing down the expense to the towns and villages.

Notwithstanding the increased tax rate, sales tax and state unfunded mandates, the 2011 county budget promises to be even tougher. For one, the 2010 county budget was balanced using $7 million of federal stimulus money that the county will not have next year. Secondly, the 2010 budget allocated $14 million from the county’s rainy day general fund, thereby all but depleting it. Responsible stewardship and cost-cutting will be needed from the new Legislature starting Jan. 1.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, the 2010 budget completely overlooks the county’s obligation to subsidize the Resource Recovery Agency’s waste-to-energy trash plant with a projected cost of $6.3 million. To do so would have raised property taxes another 5 percent to 14 percent, a step the current Democrat-controlled legislature balked at. Rather unjustly, they shifted the onus of balancing their 2010 budget to the incoming Republican-controlled Legislature.

Any way you slice it, there is very little to celebrate about the 2010 county budget.

Michael Kelsey is the County-Legislator-Elect for the towns of Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the village of Millbrook. He will be sworn in on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

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