Troy-Rensselaer County Executive Kathleen M. Jimino presented her 2012 budget proposal to members of the County Legislature, employees, and guests in the Legislative Chambers and stated, “My proposal adheres to the letter of and intent of the 2% Tax Cap Legislation and will allow the County to fully fund all non mandated programs until April 1, 2012, the date on which the New York State Budget is due. At that time if significant State regulation or legislation providing mandate relief does not occur, such as the enactment by the Legislature and Governor of Senator Roy J. McDonald’s Medicaid takeover legislation, there will be no choice left but to dramatically cut our local services to pay for the ever escalating mandated bills while living within the 2% tax cap our State Leaders have enacted, and what our residents expect.”

During her address and in light of the recently passed 2% Tax Cap, which Jimino applauds as a positive step toward keeping government spending under control, Jimino called upon the Governor and State Legislature to “Stop Mandates Now” and bring real tax relief by addressing the State’s unfunded mandates that have driven local taxes in New York State to the highest in the nation.   Jimino went on to state, “It is a shame and certainly superficial that the recent strategy by the State of a property tax cap with no curbing of state mandates is merely a thinly disguised masquerade to allow state politicians to take bows for acting in a fiscally conservative manner, while in reality they are avoiding the tough and unpopular but necessary job of rolling their own sleeves up and working to stop or at least lessen the state mandates that are foisted on counties such as Rensselaer to bring new and meaningful tax relief to all.”

Jimino pointed out the hypocrisy of the situation, noting that since over the last five years, “The costs to provide local services such as those to pave, plow, and patrol our roads as well as maintain our senior and veterans services have been lowered by 11% while the costs of the state’s mandated programs have increased by 54%. 

Jimino continued, “By itself, without meaningful mandate reform by the State, the cap is merely rudderless and without foundation in a storm of increasing state driven mandated costs, costs which this year have spent nearly ninety cents of every local tax dollar collected in Rensselaer County, and whose local charges to our County have grown more than two percent to date this year, thus over the instituted local cap and a contradiction in itself.”

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Jimino went on to outline the cost shifts in the State’s budget that increase the costs incurred by the County to fund State programs when she noted their recent actions to, “Keep their own house appearing fiscally responsible and appropriate leaving Counties left holding the bag without the ability to lessen its weight on county government and our taxpayers.”  Cost shifts enacted as part of the state’s budget this past year, but are still mandated by the State, and therefore by law must be funded by the County, include the following:

·        An 8% reduction in Probation reimbursement

·        The elimination of funding for the state mandated medical examiner

·        The elimination of funding for the administration of the state mandated Early Intervention Program

·        The reduction of 25% of state funding for youth programs; and

·        A 50% reduction in reimbursement for Indigent Legal Services we are required to provide.

To operate within the rule and intent of the 2% Tax Cap law as promised by State leaders Jimino’s budget proposal fully funds non mandated local services until April 1, 2012 in the hopes that meaningful mandate relief will occur and allow for the continuation of local services.  If there is not meaningful mandate reform in place either by state legislation or regulation, funding for the following programs that are not mandated by the State will be reduced from the 2011 levels and services will be adjusted commensurately:

• Aging Services home delivered meals will be reduced from five days per week to four days per week; medical transportation will be reduced; the senior center in Rensselaer will be closed;
• Cornell Cooperative Extension subsidy will be reduced;
• Planning funding for economic development staff will be reduced;
• Public Safety funding for training and future planning will be reduced and funding for a replacement vehicle for the Fire Coordinator will be eliminated;
• Sheriff’s Department funding will be reduced, the specifics to be determined by the Sheriff as a separately elected official;
• Soil and Water subsidy will be reduced;
• Van Rensselaer Manor security, housekeeping and laundry services currently staffed with county employees will be considered for outsourcing, a practice that is currently being exercised in the pharmacy department; and
• Veterans’ transportation services will be reduced from two to one van per day.

To avert the loss of local services as outlined in the budget proposal Jimino is calling upon State Leaders to undertake real meaningful mandate reform, such as the aforementioned legislation co-sponsored by Senator Roy McDonald, which will have the State take over the mandated county share of Medicaid spending over the course of eight years. 

Jimino continued, “Frankly, without either regulation or legislation to control the reckless out of control mandates handed down to our County from Albany, there will be no County money left to fund the local services that our residents and businesses have come to rely upon.  Immediate State action is critical to our ability to provide meals for our seniors, transportation services for our veterans, and to maintain and patrol our roads”.

If the State fails to act and is content to merely ride the wave of the two percent tax cap sound bite without the true mandate reform, Jimino concluded, “This proposed budget will be but a storm warning of what is forecast for our tomorrows… It will only get worse.”

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Additional budget facts: 

90 cents of every tax dollar collected in Rensselaer County will be used to fund mandated programs leaving 10 cents for local services.

Major Areas of County the Budget that are affected by mandated State services and their projected cost in 2012 include:

·        $33.8 million for Medicaid

·        $5.7million for Safety Net

·        $14.3 million for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

·        $19.7 for the County Jail

·        $40.1 for the County Nursing Home the Van Rensselaer Manor

·        $18.1 million for Early Intervention and Special Needs

Total cost increase in mandated costs of state programs will increase $6.8 million in 2012 while 2% tax increase generates $1.1 million.

Proposed 2012 Budget increases by only 2.8% over last year’s adopted budget in spite of major mandated cost increases.

Total Proposed Budget is $312,295,190

Retirement Contribution rates for tier 3 and 4 will increase from 6.9% of payroll in 2010 to 11.2% in 2011, 15.6% in 2012, and 18.4 in 2013.

Under this proposal the annual county property tax bill would increase by $11.30 to $561.03 for each $100,000 of property value. As a matter of clarification the proposed county tax rate and its change from the current year’s rate will vary from one municipality to another.  This variance is due to each individual municipality’s equalization rate as established by the New York State Division of Real Property Services as well as the property assessments as established by the municipal assessors.

A 9% increase in the tax rate would have been required to fund the mandated services and maintain all our local services.

Over the last five years the cost of local services have been lowered by 11% while the costs of the state’s mandated programs have increased by 54%.