Rockland County Exec Vetoes Lawmakers' Budget Amendments

NEW CITY, NY – Rockland County Executive Ed Day today returned to the Legislature its amended Rockland County budget for 2017.

The County Executive vetoed all but four of the remaining amendments proposed by the Legislature. Those four amendments involve restoring one position each in the departments of Highway, Consumer Protection, Sheriff and the District Attorney.

“While I respect the Legislature’s input, I cannot in good conscience allow amendments from the Democratic majority, which are funded by phantom revenue, to go forward,” Day said. “We have worked too hard to climb out of a fiscal hole to travel down the same road that led this county to a staggering $138 million deficit and near insolvency.”

Rockland County Legislature Chairman Alden H. Wolfe (D-Montebello) and Budget and Finance Chairman Legislator Michael Grant blasted Day for failing to approve an amended 2017 budget that brought a small tax decrease for property owners.

"The amended budget was adopted after hours and hours of detailed review and verification of expected revenues and expenditures," Wolfe said. "For the first time since the recession hit in 2008 we produced a budget that offered relief to taxpayers. This unilateral action by the County Executive is just another example of his 'my way or the highway' mentality, that if he doesn't get exactly what he wants, he will not support other options arrived at through discussion and consensus."

The amendments to the proposed budget made by the Democratic majority counts on money that does not exist to promise residents a mere 50 cents per month tax decrease, Day said.

“But by counting on phantom money, what they’re really doing is increasing the deficit,” he said.

He said under his spending plan, county taxes will increase about $1 per month, an increase that is cancelled out by a decrease in sewer fees for two-thirds of Rockland residents in Sewer District No. 1.

He said the legislature's amendments repeated the sins of Rockland’s recent financial past by relying on unrealistic sales tax projections and phantom revenue. Day said the deficit that he inherited is now down to $16 million and he wants to continue to pay it down.

Wolfe and Grant also criticized Day for failing to dedicate any money for deficit reduction — in direct contradiction of the state Comptroller's recommendation. The Legislature's amended budget set aside $4 million for such action, in response to the Comptroller and in adherence to a county law requiring the pay down.

"The amended budget corrected the County Executive's lack of deficit reduction," Grant said. "It also went significantly further by setting aside funding to cover union contract increases that he negotiated but didn't budget for."

Day said the county's negotiators object to such a move, which signals how much the county is willing to allocate for raises.

Most municipal and school district budgets do not name an amount for raises in a contract year.

Day said he looked forward to working with the Legislature to sell the county-owned Sain Building, which a buyer wants to purchase for $4.5 million. He said he could not allow that money to be counted in the 2017 budget until the sale is realized — something he did this current year, but lawmakers have blocked his attempts to get it sold on the grounds that he has not followed proper procedures.

But Wolfe said, "The sale of the building was not needed in 2016, with an estimated surplus of $2 million expected when the books are finally closed for the year - without the sale taking place. He didn't include it in his proposed 2017 budget and he's excluded it from the amended budget through his veto. That tells all of us that he does not see its sale as necessary for the good of the county's finances."

"If the sale is completed, we can use the funds for deficit reduction," Grant said. "This is in contrast to the County Executive's 2016 plan, which devoted the proceeds to operating expenses — a one-shot solution at best."

Day agreed that revenue from the sale would go primarily toward deficit reduction, but also said he would work with the Legislature to see if some could be used to fund non-profit agencies that are not now being funded; and explore the potential of using some to fund contract settlements, primarily if back pay is awarded.

He said the lawmakers' decision to cover a small tax cut in part by raising estimated sales tax revenue projection by an additional $1.5 million was wrong. The state Comptroller found his office's projections to be reasonable, he said. To achieve an additional $1.5 million in sales tax revenue, Rockland would need sales totaling an additional $37.5 million at a time when both the Comptroller and the New York State Association of Counties caution that sales tax revenue is trending downward.

Another amendment that Day vetoed was a proposal by the legislative majority which he said abolished positions that are either funded by grants or that could endanger future grants, including those associated with the new Tappan Zee Bridge or designed to save taxpayer money.

Also vetoed was about $1.3 million in funding to nonprofit Public Benefit Organizations that provide a range of vital services groups ranging from Child Care Resources and Keep Rockland Beautiful to Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Rockland and Cornell Cooperative Extension. Wolfe and Grant urged the public to contact Legislators Carey, Falciglia, Hofstein, Moroney, Santulli and Tyer, who voted against the amended budget, to get that money back in by voting to override the veto.

Day said his budget provides more than $16 million in funding for non-profit agencies in Rockland, but acknowledged some non-profits known as 224s could not be funded within the spending proposal. He said that he recognized this in August and asked the legislature to consider a measure to break the state-mandated 1.17 percent property tax cap as necessary. They did not, he said.

As a result, the county executive did not have the ability to add any additional expenses and the 224s, which are solely the responsibility of the Legislature to fund, could not be funded, he said.

Day said that the county values the services provided by those organizations.

He said that if the county-owned Sain Building is sold early enough in the year, he would be willing to consider allowing some of that revenue to be used to fund the 224s.