$1.75 million and not a penny more

By DAVID HULSE

MONTICELLO — Setting aside 10 percent of county savings from sale of tobacco bonds for health and education programs has not been a universally popular measure with county legislators, and the conservatives had the final word last week.

Rodney Gaebel (RC-5) earlier argued that the 10 percent should only include the bond sale amount, earlier predicted to be some $13 million, not of the $17.5 million which included county savings in future interest payments.

Gaebel lost the earlier argument with Chairman Rusty Pomeroy (D-3), but when Pomeroy announced before a final vote last Thursday that Sullivan has now learned of an additional $2.1 million in revenues from the sale, Gaebel and five other legislators denied extending the 10 percent blanket to the new funding.

When Pomeroy suggested the $1.75 million might not be 10 percent and called for an amendment to the resolution, Kathy LaBuda (D-2) suggested that the legislature take a look again “at a later date.”

Pomeroy said 10 percent is 10 percent and that he wasn’t changing the level of support. “I’m always concerned about things we’re going to do at ‘later dates,’” he replied.

“A bird in hand…” counseled Leni Binder (D-7).

Finance Commissioner Richard LaCondre suggested that the resolution go back to the committee for discussion.

Gaebel said he wasn’t against the spending, but “we have a finance commissioner [that] we pay a lot of money and he says hold off. I want to hear what he has to say.”

The vote on an amendment went down six to three, with Pomeroy, Binder and Jodi Goodman (RC-5) supporting it.

LaCondre said after the meeting that the additional money was not savings to permanent financing, such as the bonds the county will retire, and would not combine well with the earlier 10 percent funding for health, education and anti-smoking programs.

In other business at its regular session the legislature: authorized a contract with the state police to add an investigator to the family violence unit, authorized the county treasurer to accept credit card payment of delinquent property taxes, adopted the county share of the 2001-02 Sullivan County Community College budget and created five new registered nurse and five practical nurse positions with increased pay for registered nurses.

Rural transportation: chicken or the egg?

At an earlier special session of the Health and Family Services Committee, legislators heard about a three-year, grant supported scenario that would shift about $125,000 in current county transportation costs to a “blended” public transportation system.

Continued development of the county’s two-year-old rural public transportation system would cost $45,000 for additional bus purchases in the next three years.

Proponents say new business will not relocate in a county without public transportation, but skeptics believe the types of businesses relocating now and the available pool of in-county workers do not warrant creation of an extensive system that might fail when grant money runs out.