Putnam Plans To Share Sales Tax Revenues, Federal COVID Aid

PUTNAM COUNTY, NY — Putnam County leaders want to distribute $10 million around the county's villages and towns out of the federal funding received in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan and out of sales tax revenue.

The Legislature is scheduled to vote on the projects at its regular meeting July 5.

The latter part of the revenue-sharing plan is unprecedented, Putnam County Legislature Chairman Neal Sullivan said at the Rules Committee meeting in June.

I know towns have been asking us to share the sales tax for a long time and it’s really great that the county is now in a position to discuss it and consider it," he said. "We’ve never been able to do that before.”

Municipal leaders from across the county turned out at the committee meeting to support County Executive MaryEllen Odell’s $10 million proposal.

She proposed that $5 million in county sales tax funding be allocated to Putnam’s six towns and three villages for local infrastructure projects.

“The county’s strong financial position has allowed us to invest in the future, including a new ‘Share the Growth’ plan, in which the county will increase the amount of the sales tax it shares with the municipalities based on the county’s sales tax revenue growth,” Odell said in an announcement. “Because they are tied to the amount of growth, the funds cannot be counted as a regular revenue stream.”

She also recommended that $5 million of the county’s $19.1 million American Rescue Plan funding from 2021 go to the municipalities.

It's the first public proposal for allotting the federal money since the controversial decision in February to allocate $400,000 to its profitable golf course to fix water damage and do asbestos abatement.

The county’s ARPA distribution will otherwise mostly focus on school safety, mental health & substance abuse, food insecurity, clean water, sewer, roads and bridges, and buildings. Plus county officials are paying $ 30,000 for consultant services they said were required in the administration of the ARPA program.

Not everyone is in favor. Legislator Paul Jonke called it a “giveaway” and said the lawmakers would need more time to consider the proposal.

“I’ve used the term ‘reckless’ in the past and I was told it was too harsh a word,” Jonke said. “This is reckless.”

However, Odell said in her statement June 30 that "time is of the essence."

“Fuel and food costs, and inflation will only increase the costs of these projects if we delay the process, which could have a detrimental and negative impact on many of these projects, programs and initiatives.

“These dollars must go out ASAP,” Odell said. “We clearly are going to see a very difficult winter season with fuel costs impacting all our businesses and our residents. I look forward to signing the agreements as soon as the Clerk of the Legislature sends them down the hall.”

The proposed projects

• School Safety – $ 2,000,000. The County will create a “team up for school safety” effort in which Sheriff Kevin J. McConville and Commissioner of Social Services and Mental Health Michael J. Piazza, Jr. will work with school district superintendents Countywide to identify enhancements to help ensure the safety of students and staff.

• Public Safety Software – $ 1,500,000. The County will purchase a new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD)/Records Management/Jail Management System. This technology will improve the ability of our first responder community to communicate and coordinate more efficiently and effectively, thereby enhancing public safety.

• Police, Fire & EMS Subscriber Radios – $ 2,500,000. The County will purchase subscriber radios for first responder agencies as a part of the Putnam County Radio project. This new interoperable communications system will allow the first responder community to respond to emergencies more effectively throughout the County.

• County Highway Infrastructure & Equipment – $ 5,012,507. The County will allocate $ 600,000 to highway equipment purchases and $ 4,412,507 to various road and bridge repairs throughout the County. The use of ARPA funds will enable the County to avoid borrowing $ 5 million to complete these projects, thereby continuing the successful debt reduction plan executed over the past 11+ years.

• Putnam County Crisis Stabilization Center – $ 2,500,000. The County will partner with People USA to create a 24/7 community crisis hub, a place where people of all ages can connect immediately with an array of health care professionals & providers to address mental health, addiction, and or social determinant health needs. ARPA funds will finance two years of expenditures.

• Mobile Food Pantry Program – $ 130,000. The County will partner with Putnam CAP to create a mobile food pantry program within Putnam County. Funds would be used to purchase a vehicle and fund an outreach worker to assist volunteers and delivering the food and educate recipients on other services that they may be eligible to receive.

• Food Pantry Refrigeration Units – $ 25,000. The County will provide funding to Second Chance Foods to expand on site cold storage at their food pantry to enable them to serve more clients.

• Town & Village Infrastructure Projects – $ 5,000,000. The County will provide $ 5,000,000 in ARPA funding, combined with $ 5,000,000 in sales tax funding to the 6 towns and three villages in Putnam County to perform vital infrastructure projects relating to water and sewer, food insecurity, roads, bridges, and buildings throughout Putnam County. These projects were vetted and approved by members of the Putnam County Legislature whose districts they represent.

Putnam Valley Supervisor Jacqueline Annabi said that, if approved, her town would use the money for projects involving the lakes, potable water and sewage.

“These were projects we had to do but we just didn’t have the money,” Annabi said.