Budget Time Again

We've had some good financial news and positive events this year – increased sales tax, the sale of the Manor, the dissolution of MOSA, the Oneida Nation's ongoing payment in return for our agreement to stay out of the casino business.  So budget time is not as anxiety-producing as it has been.  There is even the possibility of a miniscule tax reduction.

However, costs continue to rise – the usual suspects, including salaries, health insurance, and unfunded mandates, as well as the usual collection of odds and ends.  So cuts still have to be made.

Some notes on a couple of budget issues.  First, the M&C employees (Managerial and Confidential – everyone who is not represented by a union) are finally going to get their raise, the first in seven years.  It is substantial enough to not be embarrassing, but does not put our County in a salary range which is competitive statewide.  I continue to be astounded at the high quality employees, many in leadership positions, that we retain, year after year, even though they have been treated so badly.  They need to continue to be adequately compensated as the years go by.  And their raises should actually be given to them, not like last year, when the Board approved them in December and the majority of the Admin Committee took them away.

There is some substantial controversy over the closing of the Elm Park Church senior meal center in Oneonta, as well.  This is appropriate controversy, and not unexpected.  The Office for the Aging operates the meal center and a few offices in the church, for which we are charged $13,000 each year (down from the low $20,0000s a couple of years ago).  The meal site will be merged with the existing meal site at Nader Towers, and the offices will be moved to vacant rooms at the County Office Building at 242 Main Street in downtown Oneonta.  In both places, parking is the issue, and having visited both I feel that these moves will be a very big step down. 

I was on the Health and Ed Committee my first two years, and I was active in helping to find an alternative to the too-expensive Elm Park site.  We looked at Nader Towers and 242 Main, and discarded them as alternatives, mostly because of the parking issues.  This year the Health and Ed Committee cut the Elm Park payment and recommended the moves, and the Budget Review Committee approved this move.  Both committees are chaired by Don Lindberg, who represents the eastern end of the County.  He's the one to contact if you feel strongly about this, as I do.

And, finally, there is the County Clerk's office.  The County Clerk is elected, and so has a level of independence from the Board, and she has used that independence often in the past.  Cutting services at the DMV offices in Cooperstown makes sense:  patronage is declining sharply, as more and more people do their DMV business online, and Otsego County does not collect fees for online interactions.  The Clerk's threat to keep the offices (which are losing money) open and suspend out-of-state work (which does produce revenue) does not make sense, and seems to me to be done out of spite, in response to the Budget Review Committee's cuts in her department.  As a taxpayer, I'm appalled. 

More to come on the budget. Stay tuned, as usual...