County budget cuts sharply reduced

Some funds come from tax auction

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — The Sullivan County Museum will remain open, Fort Delaware will reopen and dozens of programs in 14 agencies will continue to function thanks to the restoration of most of the funds those agencies receive from the county.

County legislators voted last week to reduce cuts from a proposed 50 percent to as little as five or 10 percent to the agencies, which include the Sullivan County Visitors Association (SCVA), Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Partnership for Economic Development. The agencies, which were facing uncertainty about the rest of the year, can now move forward with their scheduled programs. SCVA, for example, which was facing a cut of $200,000, will now be cut by only $20,000. SCVA president and CEO Roberta Byron-Lockwood said she is “delighted” that the legislators restored most of the funding, and that as soon as the word came, her agency was once again buying advertising and selling the county to potential tourists.

Legislators were able to restore the funding due to a grant of $350,000 secured by Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, and a contribution from the county of $334,000 that came from the sale of foreclosed properties at the tax auction in June.

The issue of the budget cuts arose because the county budget was passed with the presumption that a sales tax increase of .05 percent would take effect in June. The increase, however, required legislation to be passed in Albany. That legislation never passed.

Tax increases on the horizon

The immediate budget problem is over, but officials are warning of an even tighter budget next year. At a meeting of the county financial committee last week, treasurer Ira Cohen warned that in recent years the county had been using the general fund balance to make ends meet too often, and that could have a negative effect going forward. The general fund balance, he said, now stands at a “paltry” $4 million.

Cohen said representatives of Moody’s Investor Service, which rates municipalities creditworthiness, indicated recently that if the general fund is not replenished, Moody’s will downgrade the county’s rating, making it much more expensive for the county to raise money in the bond market for capital projects, such as the new county jail and possible landfill expansion.

Cohen said the best way to address next year’s budget was to curtail spending, pass the .05 percent sales tax increase, and possibly institute a “modest” real property tax increase.

Sullivan County legislators shared Cohen’s concern about next year’s budget.

Lawmaker Rodney Gaebel said that more serious cuts to the agencies were avoided only because sales at the real property tax auction were “better than expected,” but that could not be counted on in the future.

County chairman Chris Cunningham, while expressing satisfaction that the cuts were smaller than expected, said “there are no guarantees about what will happen this fall.”

Budget cuts for Sullivan County agencies
Agency	Proposed Cut	Final Cut
CACHE	$15,000	$1,000
Cornell Cooperative Extension	240,000	15,000
Eagle Institute	5,000	1,000
Library Alliance	7,500	1,500
Literacy Volunteers	2,500	500
Soil & Water Conservation	67,000	3,000
Sullivan Co. Sportsman Federation	12,500	2,500
Sullivan Co. ARC	85,500	5,000
Sullivan Co. Chamber of Commerce	12,500	5,000
Sullivan Co. Partnership	37,500	7,500
Sullivan Co. Head Start	17,000	1,000
Sullivan Co. Visitors Association	200,000	20,000
Sullivan Renaissance	5,000	1,000