By Doug La Rocque
As she has in years past, County Executive Jimino is taking New York State to task for what she labels as a frightening growth pattern of state mandates. [private]“The sad fact is that these mandates have been growing over the years despite recent displays of state awareness to correct this avalanche, an avalanche that is currently gaining more and more momentum as it snowballs down the hill.” Jimino gave her annual message to the March meeting of the Rensselaer County Legislature, pointing out that 90 cents of every tax dollar the County collects goes to cover these mandated costs.
The County Executive did give the State credit for some improvements in this area, particularly freezing the local share of Medicaid costs at 34 million dollars, and new retirement tiers for newly hired public employees that provide less generous benefits and therefore less costs to local government. She noted that New York is one of the few states that require local governments to share in these Medicaid costs, and that New York’s share is greater than all those other states combined.
County Government Savings
Jimino used part of her address to say that in contrast to the State, the County is constantly finding ways to save tax dollars. She highlighted continuing consolidation, cooperation and commitment to the sharing of responsibilities and services. She pointed in particular to engaging the services of a company to more efficiently route buses for transportation children to services that resulted in an $800,000 annual savings, and the outsourcing of physical therapy and occupational services at the County’s nursing home at an annual savings of $1.3 million dollars. Jimino said improvements in energy conservation have so far saved $750,000, with more savings to come, including alternate energy programs in the solar and hydro fields. The address also mentioned a new phone system for the County Office Building and Courthouse that cut costs by $125,000 by reusing existing cabling with new technologies.
Cooperation with municipalities in the County was another tenet of the County Executive’s address to the legislature. She said much assistance was given to local governments in maintaining town owned roads and structures. Legislative Chairman Stan Brownell of Hoosick Falls, who represents all of the towns in Eastern Rensselaer County, echoed Jimino’s comments. “We are proud that we have been able to stay under the state tax cap, thanks to fiscally reasonable and conservative spending policies. That success put the county in a solid position to attract new growth and investment.
Public Safety
Improvements
Jimino says work continues on the county’s public safety capital project, which also demonstrates a sharing of services. The new 911 communications system will allow police, fire and emergency agencies to speak to each other on the same system in times of emergencies and additionally allow an interconnection between Rensselaer, Albany and Saratoga counties. The new system will also accommodate next generation 911 including texting and the transmission of videos.
Jimino also touched on the health and safety of County residents, citing increased efforts by the Department of Health in detecting, educating and assisting in disease trends that threaten county residents, such as in tick-borne illnesses, and most recently the Zika virus.
She said the County continues to advocate for residents and businesses that could be negatively impacted by the construction and operation of the Kinder-Morgan pipeline and associated compressor station, and mentioned also the County’s continuing efforts to assist Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh address PFOA contamination in local water supplies and to help communities confront the proliferation of drug use, especially of heroin, that they are seeing.
A Three Pronged Strategy
Jimino speaks in her address of a three pronged attack to the problems facing the county. The first prong being efforts to reduce state mandates, the second maintaining or increasing county services without increases in county spending, and the third being An increase of the tax base through economic development. “To this end, there has certainly been progress. All totaled, the County’s Industrial Development Agency has induced or closed nearly $350 million dollars’ worth of projects while creating or retaining close to 350 new jobs in 2015.”
Jimino closed her address by urging the State to reform its spending practices to provide the property tax relief residents deserve, stating “I hope for a solid across the board philosophy for economic discipline to proliferate at the state level of government, where ramifications of mandated programs are taken into local taxpayer account.”[/private]