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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