MONTICELLO, NY — The Sullivan County Legislature adopted the county’s 2023 budget in a special meeting on December 8.

The budget comes in at $268,364,511, and it does not raise taxes, incur new debt or raid the county’s general fund balance. It does include a number of measures that could provide direct assistance to the people of Sullivan County. It eliminates the solid waste access fee, which charged properties that had access to the county’s solid waste management system $50 per residential parcel and up to $750 per commercial parcel. It also dedicates $1 million to keep buses running along Move Sullivan’s expanded bus routes, and it invests $21 million in county road and bridge work.

The county made a few amendments between the tentative budget and the adopted budget. The most significant item involved the county’s health insurance—the budget line for health insurance for active employees was increased by $1,965,100 and for retirees by $393,968, based on final health insurance rates received.

The budget passed 6-2. Legislators Nadia Rajsz and Luis Alvarez voted against it; legislator Joe Perrello was absent, but said in a press release that he would have voted for it.

“We continue to reduce our debt, increase our services, provide for our employees and give relief to our taxpayers,” legislative chair Rob Doherty said in a press release following the meeting. “And we’re well positioned to face whatever economic conditions come in 2023.”

Keeping the budget flat

Some commenters on December 8 questioned the county’s decision to keep the budget flat.

“You’ve got a budget [that’s] flat from last year,” said frequent public commenter Ken Walter. “Increase in health costs, increase in labor costs, but we’ve got a flat budget. As far as I know, when you stay flat you don’t gain any ground at all, you’re losing someplace.”

Legislator Nadia Rajsz raised a similar concern; she had received numerous phone calls from people who weren’t happy with the flat budget. In a press release following the meeting, she said that it should not have been flat and that the county needs to be prepared for 2023.

“Costs are increasing, and we need to be prudent in how we plan for an uncertain future,” said Perrello in his statement after the meeting.

The majority of legislators praised the budget’s lack of a tax increase.

The county’s strong financial position, “coupled with a budget that doesn’t raise taxes or cut services… does have me looking forward to 2023 in a very positive way,” said legislator Mike Brooks in a post-meeting statement.

In support of elections

During the process of voting on the budget, Rajsz introduced an amendment to provide the Sullivan County Board of Elections (BoE) with an extra $100,000.

For the BoE to work more efficiently, it needed more equipment and personnel, said Rajsz. The BoE discussed its requests with the legislature following November’s general election, in which residents of the county experienced long lines and delays at the polls. (Rajsz’ daughter Deanna Senyk is one of the BoE’s commissioners.)

The county had experienced higher turnout in previous years, and hadn’t experienced the same amount of lines, said Doherty. He put the blame for the long lines on the on-site printing of ballots, as did legislator Alan Sorensen.

The amendment failed 2-6, with legislators Ira Steingart and Rajsz voting in favor.

Contracts finalized

The legislature also voted to authorize a contract with the CSEA union, covering the sheriff’s deputies in the Sullivan County Jail and in the civil division.

The contract does a lot of things for the deputies, said Doherty; it gives a $9,000 increase in starting pay, condenses the steps of pay from 13 to 10 and gives the deputies insurance and retirement benefits.

“They had negotiated [insurance and retirement] away years ago, and that was one of the things we worked on,” said Doherty.

The contract marked the first time in the legislature’s history that all the contracts were done with multiple years left on them, Doherty said. That consistency guarantees financial stability in 2023, he added. “Labor is your number-one cost in the county, and by having cost certainty going forward, it’s a very big deal.”

Differing perspectives

Doherty and legislator Ira Steingart, leader of the Democratic minority caucus, sparred over the impact of the budget in a back-and-forth exchange following its passage.

The financial stability the county gained from approving all its contracts enabled the county to provide additional services, Doherty said; he mentioned specifically the expansion of Move Sullivan, the expansion of the Sullivan Promise community college scholarship and an increase in the sheriff’s office budget.

“I am proud also of some of the changes we’ve made [for] additional services, but I want to make it clear that this just didn’t happen with this legislature,” said Steingart. There were larger economic factors in play—sales tax had gone above property taxes, said Steingart, and the county had received relief during the pandemic. “So it’s not necessarily the great job that we did financially; it fell in our laps.”

“I don’t mean to argue with you, Ira—you have your beliefs and I have my facts,” said Doherty. He put the credit for the county’s strong financial position on its own actions—for room taxes, specifically, the county had gone after short-term rental platforms to ensure they paid their fair share.