LEGISLATURE STUFF - Its Not About the Money - Oh Yes It Is

CATSKILL - Several suggestions were made on what to do with reserve dollars when a public hearing was held on the proposed 2026 Greene County budget, this past Monday night.

County lawmakers hosted the hearing at Catskill High School, drawing an uncharacteristically large crowd on a spending plan that, for the seventh straight year, contains no tax levy increase.

Six of the county’s fourteen towns, under the current proposal, will pay more than they did in 2025, according to figures offered by county administrator Shaun Groden.

But those rises are due to the complex property Equalization Rates, though the total levy will stay unchanged at $27,404,370, budget numbers show.

Larger than predicted sales tax revenues will be used to help offset roughly $5.8 million more in overall spending from a year ago, along with other sources, officials say.

Appropriations rose from $136,082,679 to $141,858,252, needing an equal amount in income, especially sales tax, to keep the tax levy stationary.

Groden, while able to follow through on his predication made, last year, that the levy would stay fixed, could make no such future promise.

Fortunately, sales tax receipts have steadily grown in the county over the same 7-year period and, “sales tax revenue is absolutely critical to the budget,” Groden said. “But it is something we cannot control.”

Groden pointed to potential slashes in both federal and State funding for public assistance programs, and the ongoing government shutdown in Washington D.C. as further reason to take a cautionary, wait-and-see approach to 2027 fiscal prognostications.

In the present, several public hearing attendees focused their attention on the Meals on Wheels program and controversy that has swirled around possible cuts in the number and type of home deliveries.

It has been proposed by the Department of Aging to limit home deliveries of hot meals to once a week, rather than the current five times per week, as a significant cost-cutting measure.

While four more days of frozen meals would be delivered during that single visit, many concerns were voiced regarding the resulting loss off daily interaction between volunteer meal deliverers and the homebound.

While the facts and figures have become somewhat skewed amidst rumors of abandoning the program and misinformation, town of Windham resident Jonathan Gross was one of many speakers urging lawmakers to “put a human face” on the issue.

Helen Kerr, from the town of Lexington, shared a story of how her parents were drivers for the program and how she continued their volunteerism.

“People getting the meals have given so much to their communities,” Kerr said. “They like to see the volunteers every day They depend on us.

“We may be the only people they see on any given day. It really wouldn’t cost that much more to keep going the five days,” Kerr said.

Lawmakers did not provide precise dollar amounts but a series of legislative committee meetings on that subject are scheduled to commence, next week.

The future of Meal on Wheels is expected to be an integral part of those committee talks, potentially resulting in budget modifications prior to anticipated passage in mid-November.

Joseph Izzo, a former county legislator and frequent speaker at the annual budget hearings, took lawmakers to task for how they handle reserve dollars, saying, “let’s speak the truth.”

“I come here every year trying to get tax rates lowered for our towns. You have enough money to adjust your budget to lower property taxes,” in virtually every town, Izzo said.

“Based on what you are saying, and my analysis of the county and State financial reports, it tells me you don’t know [bleep],” Izzo said.

“I realize that issues come up every year but stop fooling around with what you anticipate and what you don’t anticipate. God will be here before you lower the tax rate,” Izzo said.

Lawmakers, over the past seven years, have discussed a tax break, but emphasize they have instead established several reserve accounts, knowing the expenses would inevitably be coming.

They point to the deep divide that surfaced during talks on the construction of a new county jail nearly a decade ago, having no dollars dedicated beforehand toward the State mandated, multi-million dollar project.

Since then, there have been changes made to replacement schedules for equipment, vehicles, materials, etc. in the county highway department, resulting in greater efficiencies and savings in repairs, officials say.

Lawmakers have also been involved in ongoing conversations with town leaders about the formation of a countywide ambulance system, a plan estimated to cost between $12-15 million.

A full countywide system appears to be inevitable although a timetable has been elusive and may be years down the road.

Meanwhile, lawmakers, are also considering subsidizing individual towns to help offset ever-rising costs, shifting a total of $2 million toward that end, dispensing the dollars based on each municipality’s tax levy.

In exchange, municipalities would be asked to sign an agreement, moving toward consolidation in terms of purchasing of equipment and supplies as well as billing, etc, shaping the groundwork for a unified system.

Those details are likewise expected to be debated in the upcoming committee sessions that begin on November 5.