Well, the impossible has been achieved:
the Budget Committee has prepared a balanced budget to present to
the Full Board at the end of the week. After that, any adjustment
need to be made by the full board.
It took a long time to close the $9
million+ gap. The $2 million+ tower project cost for next year was
covered by loans, which will add almost $1 million in interest to be
paid off during subsequent years. The reduction in projected DSS
revenues was offset, to a great extent, by updated revenue
projections in other areas of DSS function. There has actually been
a lot of activity in this area since the original budget was prepared
in August, and much of that activity results in good fiscal news for
Otsego County.
Lots of projects won't get done next
year; the technical term for this is “kicking the can down the
road.” Department heads cut and shaved and did without. And a
number of vacant positions – and some that were not vacant – were
cut from the budget. But not as many as some folks wanted. Rick
Hulse fought for the elimination of 25 positions County-wide, much
more than was needed, because he felt that this was the way to
longer-term stability. Don Lindberg wanted to cut more, for reasons
that were not as clear. In the end, enough positions were cut –
including two in the Sheriff’s road patrol – to get to zero, and
no more.
Also cut was the bed tax distribution,
which has been a lightning rod of controversy and perhaps the single
most disputed issue on the Board this year. Until now, the 4% tax
added on to tourist accommodations has all gone to the County,
ostensibly to support and grow tourism, but, as we all know, money is
fungible. Originally proposed by Oneonta then-mayor Dick Miller,
Cooperstown mayor Jeff Katz, and Board member Ed Lentz, the
distribution returns some of the bed tax that is collected to the
municipalities, pro-rated based on the proportion of the total bed
tax which comes from each municipalities.
The original proposal did not pass, but
later in the year – in what can only be a bold political move –
three Republicans, including some who had voted against it,
re-introduced, with great media fanfare, a “new” bed tax proposal
with extremely tiny and insignificant differences. It passed, and so
a Democratic initiative became Republican. Two of the three
Representatives who re-introduced the plan did not get reelected, so
it is not clear whether this was a good move. At any rate, the will
of the Board was, and is, that part of the bed tax should be
distributed to the municipalities from which it emanates.
But that distribution was eliminated to
balance the budget, so municipalities will have to wait until next
year. Unless this whole process was developed to kill a plan and
still take credit for it...
