February 15, 2008
Governor’s 21-Day Amendments: Mind the Gap
This week, Governor Spitzer released his 21-Day Amendments to the 2008-09 Executive Budget. As is being widely reported, the Governor is citing a possible national recession and declining state revenues as causes of widening the state budget deficit by $384 million. In January, the Governor proposed a $124 billion budget, with about $80 billion in state spending.
To fill the projected gap, the Governor proposes $147 million in lowered state spending in health care. In addition, he proposes saving $237 million in reduced growth in funding for agencies; prepaying a pension obligation to cut interest costs; and requiring tighter management of overtime pay and nonessential services. The Executive Budget proposal, as well as the 21-Day amendments, can be found online at: www.budget.state.ny.us.
Highlights of the 21-Day amendments’ effect on counties include the following.
- Modifies the cap on county preschool special education costs to remove the compounding of the annual percentage.
- Reduces the trend factor increase for hospital, nursing home, and home/personal care reimbursement by 10 percent more than was initially projected in the Executive Budget, increasing the total losses to county nursing home to 37.5 million.
- Clarifies that a cover page required by a county clerk shall be considered an additional page for purposes of charging and recording fees.
- Increases mandate relief savings through advancing collateral source reforms in personal injury and wrongful death actions against local governments, and reforming the interest rate on judgments paid by government defendants. Both proposals apply to local governments statewide, however savings have only been estimated for New York City.
- Increases the Local Government Efficiency Grant program by $5 million in local fiscal year 2009 to a total of $30 million.
- Clarifies that certain county health districts may employ the same person as the county health commissioner and public health director.
Contact the NYSAC offices if you have questions about the Executive State Budget or the 21-Day Amendments. (Jessica Morelli)
Association of Counties Testifies before the NYS Property Tax Commission
On Tuesday, NYSAC submitted testimony to the NYS Property Tax Commission, which held a hearing in Albany on Tuesday as part of their series of meetings scheduled across the state.
Tuesday’s county testimony focused on three points:
- Cost shifts from the state to county governments have a direct impact on the growing property tax crisis in New York State;
- The need for win-win-win solutions, like the Medicaid Cap that benefited property taxpayers, county governments and the state; and
- Rebates don’t work: or in the words of Governor Eliot Spitzer in his State of the State address, a rebate check “doesn’t cure the disease.”
“New York has the highest local taxes in America, and that’s not because every Democrat and every Republican, upstate and downstate, doesn’t care about taxes,” said NYSAC Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario. “It’s because the state has forced expenses down to the local governments.”
Counties outside New York City collect $4.3 billion in property taxes each year, which represents a fraction (less than 20 percent on average) of the real property tax burden facing New Yorkers. The public tax dollars at the county level are used to pay for programs devised at the State or federal level and delivered locally. “Most of what we do—as high as 80 percent of our spending—is mandated by the state,” Acquario said in his testimony.
To emphasize how cost shifts impact local property taxpayers, the testimony pointed to two aspects of the 2008-09 Executive Budget that would increase costs for counties. The first is a shift of an additional 2 percent of the cost of public assistance to counties and the City of New York, while the State would pay two percent less. “Since the Great Depression, the state and counties have shared equally in the cost of public assistance, 50% state and 50% local share,” according to Acquario. The second proposal is a shift in cost of juvenile detention centers. Effective April 1, 2008, counties will assume 100% of the cost for youth placed by the Family Court in secure and non-secure detention facilities. Both of these shifts demonstrate why New York’s tax burden is the highest in the nation.
The full testimony can be found on the NYSAC website at www.nysac.org. The schedule of hearings across the state is listed below. (Ken Crannell)
County Officials Briefed on NYS Blueprint for Economic Growth
Daniel Gunderson, the Upstate Chair of Empire State Development, presented the details of New York State’s Blueprint for Economic Growth to hundreds of county officials at last month’s NYSAC Legislative Conference. Empire State Development is the agency responsible for the state's economic development efforts.
“New York has clung too long to ways of the past. We need to radically change policies and approaches,” said Gunderson. The old approaches include high taxes, over reliance on subsidies and lack of statewide and regional planning. “The upstate economy is caught in a tailspin,” said Gunderson. Upstate lost 25% of its young population and a one third of its manufacturing base. In Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse the average poverty rate is almost 29%, up 8% since 2000.
In 2007 Governor Spitzer laid out a four-pillar plan for revitalizing New York. To develop the regional blueprint plan, ESD spoke with business and cultural leaders from across upstate about the root causes of economic problems. Based on these conversations, the five “I”s of economic development were adopted; Infrastructure, Innovation, Intellectual Capital, International and Investment.
To download a copy of Mr. Gunderson’s powerpoint presentation, visit our website at www.nysac.org, or click here. (Isabelle Andrews)
County Officials to Tour Jail Food Production Center
NYSAC has invited county officials to tour the New York State Department of Correctional Services’ Food Production Center in Rome, NY at 11 a.m. on February 27th. The tour will provide county officials the opportunity see this operation first hand and learn about an opportunity to use the food service for their county jail.
As part of the 2008-09 Executive Budget Proposal, Governor Eliot Spitzer has expanded the operation of this Cook/Chill facility to allow counties take advantage of the low-cost, nutritional food service for county-operated jails.
Under the “cook/chill” process, large quantities of food are produced to a “just-done” state, then chilled rapidly and stored under tightly controlled temperature conditions. The products are then shipped in large, sealed plastic bags and the food only has to be reheated at the participating facilities before serving. For more information or to sign up for the tour, contact Arraya Anderson at 518-465-1473 or aanderson@nysac.org. (Adriano Bongiorno)
Winter issue of NYSAC News Available on our Website.
The focus of the latest edition of the NYSAC News magazine is how counties care for children, and it includes a wide array of articles devoted to the programs and services counties provide to the children of New York State.
"Even before a child is born, counties are instrumental in providing services that help shape, influence and guide development. From pre-natal care to Early Intervention to consumer protection of toys with lead paint, there are essential services designed to help children at the earliest possible phase in their development,” according to Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario.
For a PDF version of the magazine, visit our website or click: Winter 2008: Counties Care for Children. (Mark LaVigne)
NYSAC News Call for Spring Articles
NYSAC is planning our Spring 2008 issue of the NYSAC News magazine, and we are seeking articles for submission. The focus of this issue will be the County Workforce, and will include stories on the many good things our county public servants do to make New York a better place to live and work.
If you have a story about your county workforce, please consider sending it along. We are hoping for active county participation for this issue. Submissions should be between 750 to 1,000 words and include a 300 dpi photograph of the author or an appropriate photograph to accompany the text. The deadline for submissions is March 10, 2008. Submissions should be sent to mlavigne@nysac.org. We will only be able to include articles that are received by this date. (Mark LaVigne)
Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners to convene in March
The New York State Association of County Coroners and Medical Examiners is holding its Spring Educational Conference in March at the Turning Stone Casino. The Conference is entitled, "Legal Issues for Medical Examiners and Coroners,” with an educational focus targeted to Coroners, Medical Examiners, County Attorneys and Funeral Directors. For more information, visit their website at www.nysaccme.org.
2008 County Directory
NYSAC is currently updating its roster of thousands of elected and appointed county officials in New York State. The directory will be available in April. To order a copy of the 2008 Directory, visit
www.nysac.org/About/documents/2007DirectoryOrderForm.pdf.
Coming Next Week
The State Assembly and Senate are not in session next week in honor of the President’s Day holiday.
