Town Supervisor, Jim Quigley will most likely put on his walking shoes and visit residents in their homes reminding them of the job that still lays ahead.
"We've accomplished a lot, but there is still much to do. We've got to replenish the General Fund Balance and aggressively explore economic development", insists Mr Quigley.
Both daunting challenges in bad economic times, and both a necessity if the town is to remain on sound financial footing.
The real challenge for next year will most likely be County. The latest reality check, a $25 million gap between Tax revenue and expenses, (a result of the Governors 2% Property Tax Cap), in fiscal 2012 will be hard to fill without major layoffs. To increase the 2% cap it would take more than a 60% approval by the Legislature, (unlikely at best), after a 'public hearing'.
Whether it is shortsightedness on the part of County Exec Hein or just bad management, expending the $14- $16 million Fund Balance to deliver a 0% tax increase to residents in his pre-election year budget is proving to be his biggest blunder. Granted Hein had expected to sell Golden Hill in 2012 to fill that gap although he is meeting stronger resistance than he had anticipated. These issues usually arise when politicians manipulate resources to enhance their political positions, sometimes it backfires.
Challenges from the Legislature aside, we've got a big problem on our hands, one that might make the Golden Hill issue problematic.
All things being equal, cutting $25 million in expenses represents a lot of jobs even when the average county salary & benefit package exceeds $90k per job, it's still a lot of jobs.
Finally, the County is done redistricting and the 23 seats remaining are sure to provide interesting races.
All in all the coming elections will contain the usual amount of drama, we can expect every political issue to be a crisis and every politician to have a solution.
It seems we've heard that song before!
Hein is screwed, thus the taxpayers are screwed, I think Hein thought he would have replaced Hinchey by now and all this would be someone else's problem. Guess what, Maurice is still being Maurice, Hein you should know by now, you can't depend on politicians to do what they claim they will do, I guess what comes around goes around.
ReplyDelete4:24 You sound surprised, the only one they screw quicker than John Q Public is each other.
ReplyDeleteHinchey is an ass, I'm sorry he's sick but he's still an ass
ReplyDeleteHasn't anyone come forward to challenge Brink or Kitchen yet? Joel is getting a little old for this and Eric needs to tell us why we should re-elect him!
ReplyDeleteKitchen has done an excellent job with the recreation dept. I don't particularly like Brink but at least he does the abstract stuff which is real work. Can we swap them out and put Morrow and Hendrick up for re-election. Those two are useless.
ReplyDeleteDont believe a word you hear out of Hein's lackeys. They are putting the $25m alleged deficit out there, so that when he has to raise taxes a few points, he looks like a hero. Doesn't anybody have this guy figured out ,yet????. Watch and see, the budget will be fine, and he will declare himself a financial genius. A legend in his own mind.
ReplyDeleteJust One Question:
ReplyDeleteHow can any legislator, administrator or taxpayer justify the cost, stated or realized, (don't forget the jail overruns), of $80+ million dollar expenditure in an industry, (health care), where delivery costs are increasing dramatically and Federal Medicaid reimbursements are decreasing dramatically?
Not to mention the outlandish salary issues, (benefit and pension etc), in contracts with unions who refuse to consider the current economy.
Let the private sector purchase and run it, they do it more efficiently anyway, and the county could surely use the money and eliminate the expenses.
How many employees are friends of friends in the county, who are we protecting? SHouldn't it be the taxpayers?
Afterall, if a private enterprise operates it the beds will still be there, It seems to me that Ten Broek Commons is run efficiently!
Hein's manufacturing council: manufacturing more BS for an empty suit...
ReplyDelete11:25 - Is this Robin Yess, or just one of her followers? Obviously you do not have family members at Golden Hill or Ten Broeck. Although Ten Broeck has one of the best reputations locally, I hear horror stories all the time. I was just told by someone the other day that he was paying a nurse on the side to keep his family member's face and hands washed. I assure you, I never had to do this when my grandmother was at Golden Hill. The fact of the matter is that Medicaid and medicare (your tax dollars) are paying for their care, regardless of who owns the facility. The difference is that private facilities milk all they can from the medicare system, using rehab (OT, PT) services to exhaust their medicare funds, whether the services are needed or not. At Golden Hill, rehab services are provided as needed, and discontinued as soon as possible, so as not to exhaust the medicare dollars. Furthermore, by keeping Golden Hill in County control, you are keeping those tax dollars in our local economy. If you privatize, a chunk of those funds will go into the pockets of a large corporation, instead of staying in Ulster County.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I would like to point out that the private nursing homes are in financial trouble, and many are closing. This poses two issues. First, do the original proposals to buy Golden Hill even still stand? Is anyone even interested in buying it? Some legislators like to say that they would make sure it was sold to a reputable buyer. How can they insure that if there are only one or 2 offers on the table? Second, if the nursing home is sold, and the company is unable to make a substantial profit, will they turn around and close the doors in a year or two? Afterall, they have no ties or obligations to this community. They would have no problem sleeping at night, while we would be forced to send our seniors out of county or even out of state. Then, every bit of our tax dollars (medicaid and medicare) would be taken out of the local economy.
Just some things to think about. And, by the way, I am not an employee at Golden Hill. My grandmother lived there for 8 years, until her death, and I am a passionate supporter of keeping it County run.
Just wondering who you are going to support in the Legislative race?
ReplyDeleteMr. Maloney has been one of the Republicans in support of keeping Golden Hill in County hands and it's $5-10 million a year price tag. That is a big part of what is wrong with the county budget.
Maloney can not have it both ways, he can not promote unnecessary County expense and call himself a Conservative - Republican. What hypocrites both of those party leaders are for supporting him. Just selling GH, will fix any budget problem the county is facing. The time has come.
No one wants to see Golden Hill close, and it won't. However, it is very obvious that it should be turned over to a qualified private enterprise.
9:51
ReplyDeleteWhen you can't defend the arguement you attack the opposition, NO I am NOT a Robin Yess follower, and even if I were what does that have to do with the facts?
The facts are the County should not be in the health care business, not now and certainly not if Obama Care kicks in. We can't afford it and when the union workers threaten to strike because their pensions and healthcare contributions are going up and worse when their pensions are no longer sustainable, WHO WILL BE THERE TO CARE FOR THE RESIDENTS?
YOU make me laugh, you think the enless stream of money going into GOLDEN HILL will last forever, face the fact that times will be tough for the next few years and money will run out, the Fed will cut it's funding, the State will cut it's funding and the only one left to pay for a $90 million facility not counting operating costs will be the 96,000 taxpayers of Ulster COunty.
Besides how many county officials have friends and relatives as residents or employeed by the facility?
Why will no one disclose the facts.
Forget Robin Yess, anyone with half a brain can see that the cost vs expenditures wont justify keeping it a county facility.
I have found a familiar theme running through the threads of many local blogs, Blaber, Mojo etc, that is to say many of the commments relfect a distrust of county administrators and politicians, many express the sentiment that mepotism runs rampant throughout all divisions and segments from HEin down to the lowest part time laboror, you would think that they are all from the same family. Could it be true? Why is everyone so damn suspicious?
ReplyDelete