Budget of the great recession

Tough choices for Sullivan lawmakers

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — Sullivan County lawmakers are scheduled to make a final vote on the budget on December 17. That’s too late to allow us to get the results in this week’s newspaper, but we will update the story on this website.

As the vote neared, county officials were still negotiating with the six unions that represent county workers to see if they would be willing to pick up some of the cost of their healthcare plans, or accept unpaid time off or perhaps other measures to spare some of the nearly 50 jobs that are targeted for elimination because of the county’s fiscal condition.

The disparity in the revenues the county received this year and in previous years, which is expected to continue into 2010 because of the lingering global recession, was made apparent when county treasurer Ira Cohen gave lawmakers a monthly report on December 10.

Year-to-date sales tax revenues through early December were down about $2 million to $28.8 million from 2008 to 2009. Mortgage tax collections, which are an indication of real estate activity, dropped from a high of nearly $326,000 in November 2006 to about $129,000 in November 2009.

Combining those numbers with the decreased amount of funding coming from the state, county lawmakers had little choice but to take serious measures to balance the budget, which has led to tensions within county government.

Carol Ryan, commissioner of the Department of Public Health Services, for instance, was asked to cut her budget by more than $600,000. She did, but subsequently two positions were axed from the department without her input. Two members of the department’s advisory board testified at the budget public hearing on December 10, that the department could not fulfill its mission without the two employees, whose positions, they said, generate revenue for the county.

The Department of Family Services is also facing staff and budget cuts. Commissioner Chris Cunningham said that the cuts come as demand for services is increasing. He said, “Temporary assistance caseloads from 2007 to 2009 are up approximately 30 percent, Medicaid is up approximately 14 percent and food stamps is up approximately 38 percent. One family or individual may be applying for all three services, but certainly the trend is clearly up over the past couple of years, which we would expect with the economy being the way it is.”

With some residents facing cutbacks in services or longer waits to receive them, Rock Hill resident Dave Colavito said lawmakers should consider the help of volunteers to fill the void. He said that if 10 percent of the households in the county “had one person volunteer 10 hours a year—you can do the math—you’re looking at more than 12 full-time equivalents.”