American History

History was made last night. The Republican Congress, after nearly seven months, failed, for the last time, to pass a tax bill that they called a healthcare bill, a bill that all of them were elected to pass. It was one of the most reprehensible, cynical and dishonest bills of our time, for a number of reasons, not least of which is that it would have had a devastating effect on a large number of the people of Otsego County, and their children and grandchildren.

Very few votes take place in Congress without the leadership knowing where every vote is going. It was clear that all Dems would vote against, with Linda Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) also voting against. That would result in a 50-50 split, and Vice President Mike Pence, also Constitutionally appointed President of the Senate, would vote to break the tie (the only time he can vote). But then this happened.

My take on this clip: The roll call vote is called alphabetically, and McCain was out of the room when his name came up. They're on the 'P's when he reenters (bottom right). He walks up to the desk and gets the secretary's attention, between Peters and Portman, and gives his vote. No. Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, hangs his head; his career may be over. Kirsten Gillebrand, in the black dress, one of our NY Senators, jumps up in astonished delight. Elizabeth Warren, already standing, in the blue/green jacket, applauds spontaneously. Bernie Sanders pokes the guy next to him in glee. The Republicans (left side of chamber) seem frozen in shock.

This is how history is made.

I am so grateful to John McCain and Linda Murkowski and Susan Collins and all the Americans who called and wrote their elected officials and crowded into Town Halls and spoke their minds. When we talk about America and freedom, that's what we're talking about: citizens taking risks in order to participate in their own government, without fear of reprisal. And 'thank you' also to all the Congressional Democrats who never wavered, never budged an inch, even those elected from red states and tossup districts.

I am grateful because millions of Americans, and thousands of Otsego County residents, can continue to hope that good healthcare is within their reach, and within the reach of their children and grandchildren. One vote would have taken that all away.

By the way, the failure of the Senate bill kills the Faso-Collins Amendment, which was attached to the House bill. The House bill, of course, goes nowhere unless there is a corresponding Senate bill to send to the Conference Committee, and that's what failed last night. Two or three of those bubbles rising from the ooze that the Republican tax-bill-they-called-a-healthcare-bill sank into are from the Amendment, and good riddance to it in its final resting place.  

Long Day

Lots happened yesterday.

It wasn't a surprise, as three of the most interesting and influential Committees met, all in the same room, one after another: Strategic Plan Implementation Committee at 8:30, Administration at 10:00, Budget at 2:00 (scheduled for 1:00, but Admin went on a little long...). I am on all three, so it was a long day.

The StratPlan and Budget Committees' purpose are clearly indicated in their names; Admin is like the Ways and Means Committee of the County, providing general oversight and approval for most actions to be considered by the full Board (it is also the policy-making arm of County government).

A quick dip into each meeting, to pull out one thing of consequence. The Strategic Plan committee is taking the Plan and moving it into the implementation phase, mostly by prioritizing issues and sending them off to the proper committees. However, yesterday the Committee decided to keep the issue of the County Manager and do some research into how to proceed, including inviting comment from officials working in similar counties. This is good news, as it is the first actual action on the subject, other than the fact that the Salary Study will include a slot for this position.

The Admin Committee has a widely-ranging agenda each month, and if you can only attend one meeting a month, this is the one to go to. It's as close to the place “where the sausage gets made” as any, although “the sausage” tends to get made, to at least some extent, behind closed doors. Transparency is a topic I hope I can explore in an upcoming post.

At any rate, the Admin Committee, at my request, had a conversation with County Attorney Ellen Coccoma about a series of suits that a number of other NY counties are bringing against pharmaceutical corporations regarding the opiod epidemic. New York counties are to a great extent responsible for public health, mental health and addiction services, so the cost to the county in dollars (not to mention the human cost) has been significant.

There has clearly been wrongdoing on the part of the pharmas, and they can clearly be faulted for a large part of the problem. The question is, can their culpability be articulated in the lawsuits in such a way that they are held legally responsible? That is still to be seen. There is some similarity to the lawsuits that the states brought against the tobacco companies all those years ago, although in those suits, victims were harmed while using the product for its intended purpose, whereas in the case of opiods, they were misued. However, the pharmas have cheerfully assisted victims to misuse their products for decades. The question for the Admin Committee was whether we want to consider joining the suits. Mrs. Coccoma will contact the law firm that is leading the initiative, and ask them to come and answer our questions.

And finally, Budget. I went into the meeting with two items to add to the budget before we even began: the M&C raises, and the financial partnership with the Susquehanna Animal Shelter. Long story short, the SAS request will go to the Public Safety Committee, who will find a department budget – perhaps the Sheriff – to put it in. And Len Carson, another Rep from Oneonta, along with Treasurer Dan Crowell, have developed a model for an M&C raise, costing somewhere around $150,000, which, although just a start toward parity, is a start. We'll shepherd the raise through Budget Committee and the Board. Count on it.

More Taxes

A follow-up, and some news, regarding our taxes.  I asked Treasurer Dan Crowell whether the data in the 2015 tax comparison chart I mentioned earlier was an apples-to-apples chart, and he said it was.  "...it is apples to apples AND there are some unique things about some counties to keep in mind.  We are third lowest in the state by milper rate and the lowest per capita."  He also noted that they're updating the chart, and will have it for us as the Budget work begins.  So stay tuned.

Also from Dan:  our tax cap information has arrived via State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.  

After two years of tax growth being limited to less than one percent, inflation has crept up resulting in the highest allowable levy growth since 2013,” DiNapoli said. “This increase is offset by rising fixed costs and limited budget options. I continue to urge local officials to exercise caution when crafting their spending plans.”

The tax cap, which first applied to local governments in 2012, limits tax levy increases to the lesser of the rate of inflation or 2 percent with some exceptions, including a provision that allows municipalities to override the tax cap.  

Although the growth factor climbed noticeably from the 0.68 percent cap in the current fiscal year, the 2018 fiscal year will be the fifth year in a row that local governments have had their levy growth capped at less than 2 percent. 

By comparison, property tax levy growth for school districts was capped at 1.26 percent for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

 So we have a little more to work with this year and still stay below the cap.  Given that 1% of the budget is about $100,000, it's really not much, but it's something.  Stay tuned for budget updates - the first Budget Committee meeting is at 1:00 on Thursday, in the County Office Building, third floor conference room.

Ethics

It came as a surprise to many of the Board members a few months ago that the Otsego County Policy Manual requires the existence of a Board of Ethics, and that we do not have one, nor have we had one for some time.

Here's what it says about the makeup of the Board of Ethics:

The Ethics Board shall consist of three members. No more than two shall be of the same
enrolled party affiliation. All shall be approved by majority vote of the entire board. A
majority of the members shall not be officers or employees of such county or
municipalities wholly or partially located in Otsego county and at least one of whom
shall be an elected or appointed officer or employee of Otsego County or a municipality
located within such county.

It seems that in a county of over 60,000, three people could be found who would be willing to apply the Otsego County Ethics Policy, which is pretty clear and explicit, to the occasional case that might come before it. Dave Bliss, the Representative from Middlefield and Cherry Valley, is pursing it, as he repeatedly points out, on his own. He has to point this out because the Board, meaning the Board leadership, is not pursuing it, as far as anyone can tell.

This is one of the reasons we need a Democratic majority. I believe that following our own rules about ethics would be a slam-dunk, but apparently not.

Tax Rate

Something I've never gone into before, for some reason, is our tax rate (maybe because tax rate, assessments, equalization rates, etc., are not my strong suit). It's important, though and here's why:

According to 2015 data from the Treasurer's office, only two New York counties have a lower tax rate than Otsego County's 2.92 per thousand: Saratoga's 2.90, and Hamilton County's 2.23. Hamilton County, it must be noted, has a population of 4,268, which makes it a little bigger than the Town of Otsego without the tourists.

The other 54 counties (the analysis does not include the five NYC counties, although that wouldn't change much) have a higher tax rate than Otsego, from Essex County at 3.03, to Allegheny County at 14.4. Four counties – Montgomery, Cattaragus, Cortland and Allegheny – are in double digits. Chenango County, next door, is just below them at 9.97.

This low tax rate comes at a great cost, of course. We didn't find a magical way to continue to provide appropriate and meaningful services for less and less money. We provided less and less service. Our Highway Department has shrunk by half in the last ten years, as has our IT Department. Our M&C staff, as you're no doubt tired of hearing, has had only one raise in nine years. We've outsourced our Tourism and Economic Development Departments.

Some of this needs to be fixed.

My tax property tax bill, in January, contained a charge of $526.96 for County tax and nearly three times that for City tax. Statewide, that is what's known as a very low County tax. Given the 2% tax cap (which has been, in the last few years, substantially lower than 2%), my County taxes can go up a maximum of $10.54. I am one of the few people in Otsego County who know how much rebuilding we need, so the fact that I'm willing to put up with another ten or fifteen dollars a year in County taxes to address this problem doesn't mean much. But somehow, we have to find a way to rebuild Otsego County, and convince the taxpayers of Otsego County to be our partners in that work.

County Manager vs. County Executive

You've probably read about the County Manager debate in the media. Long story short, I think we are moving to a point where a majority of the Board will, after lots of hand-holding and assurances, take the leap. Right now, we are seeking bidders for a salary study for M&C employees (see below) and the specs for this bid require that a County Manager position is included in the study. This seems, at this point, the best way to get through to a result.

There has been some noise about a County Executive, initially from Republican County Chair Anthony Casale, and I think this is dangerous. Here's the important difference: A County Manager is hired by the County Board, and works at its pleasure. A County Executive is elected. One of the things that this means – to me, the most important one – is that the County Board can require a certain level of experience and training before interviewing candidates for County Manager. Anyone – literally, any resident of Otsego County – can run for County Executive. Whoever wins becomes the CEO, so to speak, of a $110 million organization. That should give us all pause.

In addition, speaking in a partisan capacity, this is a Republican county, and any Republican candidate would have a big head start. The idea of an untrained Republican, beholden to the County Committee that got him/her elected, running our County should also give us pause. In fairness, I would not like to see the Democratic version, either.

Let's keep party politics out of the highest levels of County functioning. It's important to choose a County Manager, and not a County Executive.

A Different Perspective on Jobs

Just got home from a planning meeting of the Community Services Board (CSB), the “there's one in every county” organization that oversees mental health services, addiction services, and services to developmentally delayed individuals in Otsego County. I find this stuff fascinating and very important, and am happy to have been assigned as the County Board liaison to the CSB for each of my six years here.

The meeting was great – it was a vision and mission and goals kind of meeting; we began what will be a long conversation about issues and priorities and goals for the CSB and subcommittees in a wide variety of areas.

One of the areas was workforce development. Pat Knuth, Director of ARC Otsego, is on the CSB, and once again expressed their difficulties in obtaining and keeping staff. This is also an issue for Springbrook, one of the biggest employers in the County. I immediately thought of one of the priorities of the Otsego County Strategic Plan, which called for some kind of community college – not a bricks and mortar affair, as I think I've noted previously, but a more innovative approach to needs which are clearly and accurately identified in Otsego County.

Our conversation today was, I hope, the initial stage of further collaboration in the work of creating an institution which will reach out to High School students and High School, non-college graduates, beginning with marketing the direct-care field, then offering training, and finally providing incentives to work at local facilities and stay here for 'x' number of years.

That's a long way off. But it's important to know that, in all the noise about creating jobs, Otsego County is flooded with full time jobs with benefits which are not being filled. In a major occupational field, we don't have a jobs problem, we have jobs that go begging for lack of applicants.

Training is not the only reason for this situation – housing, pay scale, advancement, and other issues are also at play – but it is very important for us to keep this in mind whenever we talk about economic development or jobs. We've got jobs that go begging, and we need to figure out how to fill them with our young people, and how to encourage them to make a career here in Otsego County.

Coroner

Coroner Gordon Terry has come to the Health and Education Committee each of the five years I've been on the Committee, asking for funding to attend his professional conference – the Conference of the New York State Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners. Each year the funding has been budgeted, and in the past he has gotten permission to use that money to attend the conference each year he has asked. This year he did not.

Otsego County has four elected Coroners. They are not distributed geographically – all four could conceivably be elected from the same town – and they are paid on a per-call basis. All receive the same health insurance as other County employees (including the Reps). Here is the list of Otsego County Coroners and the number of calls each responded to in 2016: 

        James Dow:

28 initial calls for 2016

21 follow ups for 2016

Michael Fox:

33 initial calls for 2016

24 follow ups for 2016

Terry Knapp:

134 initial calls for 2016

113 follow ups for 2016

Gordon Terry:

13 initial calls for 2016

0 follow ups for 2016

This year, so far, the proportion has been about the same.

So the Health and Education Committee asked Coroner Terry to contact the other three Coroners and whoever else might help, and figure out a way to even out the calls over a year's time. They have thirty days to come up with a plan.

I voted to allow him to go, thinking that we should give him, and the other three, time to find a more equitable way to sort out the calls. Andrew Marietta agreed with me; Len Carson and Chair Dave Bliss did not. So Coroner Terry will need to pay his own way to the conference this year.

Salary Justice

Another important issue I've been working on is raises for M&C (Management and Confidential) employees. These are all the County non-union employees, usually in management positions or other positions of responsibility. Their salaries are set by full Board resolution every January and they've had one raise in nine years. The average Otsego County Department Head makes an average of $12,000 less than their colleagues in other upstate NY counties. At least a dozen M&C managers make less than people they manage.

When an M&C employee, and especially a Department Head, resigns or retires, we cannot, as you can imagine, find anyone to come to Otsego County at the same salary (and no one currently working in their department wants a promotion to a low-paying job with no history of raises). So we have been advertising these positions at much higher rates, with predictable and understandable protests regarding the injustice of continuing to pay remaining employees at such a low rate. As a result of this process, for instance, the Deputy Director of the Office for the Aging, a new (and, I think, very high-quality) hire, now makes more than the Commissioner of the Department of Social Services.

Last year, the Performance Review and Goal Setting Committee, along with Treasurer Dan Crowell and Personnel Director Penney Gentile, created a reasonable raise schedule for one year, providing everyone with a 3% raise, and $200/yr increase for every year of service up to five years. This was a stopgap measure, because – and this is the essential piece – we need a perpetual salary scale which determines raises – with a merit component – as automatically as possible, each year.

But even this stopgap measure was defeated, allegedly in favor of a salary study, which was proposed last fall and has just gone out for bid, for the second time. It will not be ready for the next salary resolution, at the January, 2018 full Board meeting.

Len Carson, a Rep from Oneonta, has been working with Dan and Penney this year to create another stopgap raise proposal, and it looks about the same as last years (which, to be fair, was hashed out and edited and debated and was about as good as something like that is going to get). It will cost less than $150,000, which is about one third the cost of one of the plow trucks we bought last year.

What needs to happen is that the current one-year raise needs to go into effect in January, and then the salary study needs to be carefully integrated into the personnel and budget process during 2018. Our employees – almost universally of high quality – must be compensated fairly. We cannot continue to kick this can down the road.

Full Board Resolution re: Faso Amendment

I almost forgot that the reason I started writing about the Faso-Collins Amendment was to outline the Otsego County Board's actions before and during the July meeting, regarding a resolution to support the Amendment.

Ed Frazier, of Unadilla, brought the support resolution to the Administration Committee, where that kind of thing is debated and approved. Ed and I are both on Admin. Ed felt – and still feels – strongly that the kind of unfunded mandate that the county Medicaid payments represent is an egregious injustice and must be addressed. I agree with him entirely.

However, as noted below, I do not think the Amendment will do that; in fact, I think it will do the opposite. So I voted against it in the Administration Committee, after an extensive debate. The other four members voted for it, so it was put on the full Board agenda for the July meeting.

On the full Board agenda, the resolution was listed as coming from the Administration Committee, with the names of all five members, even though I voted against it in committee. This is the way it is always done, and has always been done, for every resolution that comes from a committee. Whether you voted for it, or against it, or weren't even there, your names goes on the full Board resolution. My apologies to all who were confused by this.

As you probably know, a great many citizens, many of them professionals in the fields that are impacted by this Amendment, came to the full Board meeting and every one spoke against it – eloquently, with passion and precision. Thank you all.

The resolution was pulled from the Consent Agenda (all the resolutions that no one wants to debate or ask questions about, and which are voted on en masse) so it could be debated. Then the Chair of the Administration Committee, Craig Gelbsman, polled the members of Admin, who voted, 4-1, to pull the resolution from the full Board agenda permanently. Ed Frazier voted 'no,' meaning he'd still like to debate and vote on it. Ed has said, and I fully believe him, that his approach to this resolution was to address the unfunded mandate, and was completely unrelated to the ACHA.

Nevertheless, Otsego County will not go on record as supporting a cynical, manipulative amendment to a terrible, destructive Federal bill, thanks, no doubt, to the outpouring of citizen opinion.

So – democracy! Cool, eh?

SAS Update

Quick update on the Susquehanna Animal Shelter, and the County's attempts to support the health and safety services it provides:

• Dan Wilber, a County Rep from the western part of the county, will be proposing to the Public Safety and Legal Affairs Committee, on July 17 at 9AM, that a lump sum – provided by the Sheriff from a fund he has and is willing to use – be provided to SAS to support this year's budget.
• I will be proposing a budget line at the Budget Committee meeting, on July 20 at 1PM, to provide support on an ongoing basis.

Anyone interested in this topic might attend these meetings, which are held in the third floor conference room of the County Office Building.

The Faso-Collins Amendment

Well, it's two recent posts regarding a Federal bill. At least this one is about an amendment designed to have an impact on NY counties.

The Faso-Collins Amendment, proposed by our Congressman John Faso, and Chris Collins, another upstate Congressman from western NY, purports to right a wrong. The wrong is that New York State, unlike any other state except one or two, requires Counties to contribute dollars to support Medicaid. Most other states take on the State portion of the Medicaid costs themselves, without burdening Counties. Not so in New York – Medicaid costs make up about 10% of the Otsego County annual budget.

The Faso-Collins Amendment to the ACHA that was passed by the House directs the Federal government to figure the amount of Medicaid dollars contributed by New York Counties, and reduce Medicaid payments to NYS by that amount. The assumption you are intended to make is that New York State will find that extra money and use it to bring the Medicaid funding up to full strength.

Sounds good, no? No.

I met with Congressman Faso in April, along with a number of other Otsego County professionals who were working on the question: how much will Otsego County lose if the ACHA is passed? Last we looked, it was nearly $800,000, mostly due to Medicaid reductions. During the meeting, Congressman Faso said only one thing that seemed to related to our agenda: that he felt strongly that the Federal government spends way too much on Medicaid: “Medicaid spending is out of control, and we have to reduce it.”

So – looking at the Faso-Collins Amendment through that lens, it's clear that it might be called the Faso-Collins Medicaid Support Reduction for NYS Amendment. Because it is naive and childish – something we cannot believe is true of Congressmen Faso and Collins – to believe that the Cuomo administration will make even the first move to restore the funding from State funds. Attorney General Schneiderman has already announced that he will sue the Federal government if the Faso-Collins Amendment becomes law. There has been talk in Albany of a “Faso tax,” a state tax on Counties in the exact amount of their Medicad obligation, which I think is the height of irony.

It's all in limbo, of course, until the Senate gets a bill passed, or doesn't. If it does, then the ACHA and the Senate bill goes into the Conference Committee and who knows what comes out. If this Amendment comes out intact, it will be time to make the popcorn.