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Elimination of County Positions Under Consideration for 2008 Budget
Legislature moves to exert control over grant acceptance
by Margaret Sternberg
The June 27, 2007 meeting of the Audit Committee of the Legislature used the recent passage by the state legislature of the county's request for a .5 percent increase in the sales tax rate to discuss the impact on this and next year's budgets, placing particular emphasis on forecasting as accurately as possible expected revenue.
Finance Commissioner William Carlin said he expected the 8.38 percent county sales tax to go into effect September 1 and that the additional tax yielded for the rest of the year would be about $2 million. Carlin expects an additional $6 million to be collected in 2008 due to the .5 percent increase.
Carlin admitted, under questioning from Committee Chairman Tony Hay, that 2007 sales tax revenue could still be short even including the additional $2 million. Hay admonished Carlin that the projections for 2008 sales tax revenue needed to be accurate, warning that "we don't want to have to do that number again," even going so far as to suggest that projections for sales tax revenue not be increased from this year's number, which was lower than anticipated revenue for 2006.
Legislator Dan Birmingham added that Carlin should not "high-ball it like last year," to which Carlin responded that the number is neither low-balled nor high-balled. Birmingham responded that he had spoken with other legislators and there had been agreement that if the sales tax number [projection] is higher than the most recent [sales tax] number, rather than "raising property tax…we might have a majority to pull out the knives and cut into core services, personnel, recent projects, recent buildings that have come on line…It'll be an ugly scene [if the sales tax revenue projection] is estimated to be higher."
In a forewarning of impending increases in expenses, Carlin said that the insurance company covering county employees had already estimated a cost rise of anywhere from 12- 16 percent which, he said, would cost the county $700,000 additional for current employees and $300,000 for retirees. Carlin added that the county has no control over these costs.
In other budget news, the committee discussed means to track positions that were initially created either through partial or full grant funding but had continued to exist beyond the expiration of the grant. Legislator Birmingham said the committee wanted to make certain that the administration earmark these "provisional" positions so that the legislature could eliminate them or cut them back so that the position is funded only to the extent of grant monies. Commissioner Carlin said that should not be an issue because, when hired, people whose positions are grant-funded are told "You're hired because of this grant. If this grant ends, your position ends."
First moves were also made that evening toward amending the Putnam County Code, which would re-insert the legislature into the process of the county accepting grants. Legislator Birmingham cited, as an example, the grant that had been received specifically for use on the Red Mills Church project that had been quietly implemented without a public hearing and has since been the focus of some public outcry.
He also gave a hypothetical example of a grant coming in to put a county office building at Tilly Foster Farm, saying that "as of today, we can't do anything to stop it." Following a discussion of technical aspects of the process, Legislator Birmingham composed new language enabling the legislature to approve grants in select cases that did not detrimentally affect timelines or state processes, and the new wording was sent for review.
The monthly discussion of the sales tax number was postponed due to the final revenues from NYS for May not having been received. Legislator Hay requested that Commissioner Carlin research the most Current OTB revenues following information that the last adjustment check from OTB had shown a shortfall of approximately $100,000.
The July meeting of the Audit Committee will be held Monday, July 30, at 6:30pm.
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