Budget Time Again

The Budget Committee began chopping away at the $9.5 million gap this morning. The Committee is, essentially, the Administration Committee, but in this iteration, it is chaired by Donny Lindberg, the outgoing Representative from the southeastern corner of the county.

I would highly recommend attendance at these meetings for anyone who has the slightest interest in budgeting, County finances, or just the way groups of people operate in stressful situations. They are open meetings, which means the public is encouraged to attend. The next two will be at 9:15 on October 6 and October 19, in the second floor conference room of the County Office Building in Cooperstown.

The meeting began poorly, with Lindberg recommending a cut to our support of Cornell Cooperative Extension that, while miniscule in relation to the whole budget, would be fatal to a crucial agricultural education program, the Dairy and Field Crops team. Agriculture is Otsego County's top industry (tourism is second) and the team has shown some promise in the last year. Eliminating it as your very first act didn't make sense. Luckily, Lindberg couldn't get a second to his motion to make the cut he had suggested; he then moved cutting only half of that amount and, although he did get a second, he didn't get any further interest. The Committee felt it was better to follow the agenda and take the programs in order.

One of the biggest items for next year's budget is over $2 million to complete the multi-year, multi-million dollar tower project. I was wrong in my previous post: the total cost will be north of $20 million, not eight million. Grants have covered the great majority of the cost so far, but it turns out we did not get the final grant and will have to pay to finish the project (three towers and a lot of miscellaneous support expenses) from local funds. I found it interesting that noone at the table – including the new 911 Coordinator, Rob O'Brien, knew why we had not won the grant. Rob just started, so maybe that information is a little higher on the steep learning curve, but this is a big chunk of money to owe, on a project that must be completed, without knowing where we went wrong.

The Department of Social Services, which is overseen by my committee, Human Services, was also discussed. Their budget is enormous, and nearly all of it is spent to provide mandated services. The mandates – and the reimbursements for money spent – come from both NY State and the Federal government. I wrote about this a while ago. We need to find out how to be more engaged with the State agencies that bill, reimburse, and take back reimbursements in what seems to be a random manner, and carefully-thought-out movements toward accomplishing that are in the works.

I had to leave at noon (but made it further than Committee member Craig Gelbsman, who had to leave after about an hour), and they were beginning to talk about the completion of the roof project at the Meadows office building. I'll be there next Tuesday. More to come.