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LWVW Comments on Proposed County Budget for 2010

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severe economic challenges, including significant declines in non-property tax revenue at the state, county and local levels, have deeply impacted and will continue to affect all of us:  resident taxpayers, local businesses, nonprofit organizations, as well as schools and governments.  We need to continue reaching across party lines and working together, not against each other, to resolve our budgetary problems and we will all have to make sacrifices.

The League recognizes that this budget process is a dynamic situation, and, as such, our statement is based on the information that was available to us when we reached an agreement by consensus on November 19th.  In this context, we offer the following comments and suggestions.

Tax Rate and County Budget Increase:  Under the current recessionary economic conditions, the proposed tax rate increase of 4.88% is unacceptable.  The League believes that these conditions require the BOL and the county administration to carry out their fiduciary duty to the taxpayers and exercise fiscal discipline by working to reduce the tax rate increase to 0%.  The League understands that this is a very difficult task that will require government decision-makers to make some hard choices and we the residents to accept service cuts.

The League is concerned that some of the 2010 estimated revenues (including state aid) may be too high, and that the proposed budget does not include significant budget cuts.  The underlying assumption for the 2010 budget appears to be that the County is already operating efficiently.  The League questions this assumption and urges the BOL and the county administration to critically analyze the current array of County services, holding the provision of services to ensure the health and safety of County residents in higher priority, and determine which areas can be reorganized, pared back or eliminated.  The League also urges the BOL to more closely review the administrative costs in each department to determine which functions should remain distributed among departments and which can be more cost effectively provided in a consolidated department.

Recognizing that determining the optimum County reorganization plan cannot be achieved in a scant six weeks, the League strongly urges the County Executive and the BOL to select one or more departments and conduct a thorough, open evaluation of its operations over the next several months, well before next year’s budget is released, and to continue to undertake in depth department reviews over the next few years until all departments have gone through a similar rigorous assessment.  The current compressed budget timetable allows the BOL no time to thoughtfully address proposed recommendations for operational improvements.  

Reorganizing County Government:  The League recommends that the BOL appoint a volunteer citizen task force to participate in a broad review of County government functions within the framework of the County Charter and to make recommendations for fundamental restructuring of government organization in order to streamline and improve operations.  In addition, the League recommends that the BOL, as it did in forming the Compensation Advisory Task Force, form a specialized volunteer citizen task force with particular expertise in the insurance and health care industries to evaluate the County’s ever-increasing healthcare costs and to recommend alternative approaches to lessen the annual increases.  Separately, the League commends the county administration for taking an initial step toward streamlining government by placing the Departments of Health and Community Mental Health under a single commissioner, thereby eliminating the funding for one commissioner’s salary, and we encourage you to look closely at other opportunities to merge departments and offices and reduce administrative expenses.

Affordable Housing:  The League recommends that county-owned real estate that is underutilized, or may become underutilized as County government is consolidated, be evaluated to identify possible sites for fair and affordable housing to facilitate the implementation of the housing settlement agreement and possibly reduce the implementation cost to the County.

Transparency:  In this difficult economic environment, it is critically important that the government be transparent in its activities, so that taxpayers can clearly understand how it is spending tax dollars.  Currently, millions of dollars in County government contract awards bypass the BOL and are routinely approved by the three-member Board of Acquisition and Contract (A&C) without any discussion and explanation of its rationale.  At a minimum, the League strongly requests that the A&C deliberate and discuss the contracts at meetings that are open to the public before authorizing expenditures.

The League also requests the BOL petition the County Executive to release the budget earlier than November 16, the release date this year.  We believe that the budget should be released, at a minimum, directly after the General elections each year if not earlier. This would afford citizens a greater opportunity to review the budget and provide input.  Under the County Charter, although the BOL has until December 27 to pass the budget, the schedule set by the BOL anticipates approval of the budget on a much earlier date, December 14. This schedule allows little time for analysis and study of this very complex document, and it also limits the County government’s ability to adjust the budget in response to citizen input and economic conditions.  As we have said for more than twenty years, this timetable is a disservice to the public.

The League of Women Voters of Westchester thanks Budget Director Anne Reasoner, Deputy Budget Director John Delaney and Deputy Budget Director Arthur Vietro, for their availability and the information they have provided to us and to the public at the League-sponsored informational meeting on the budget.  We also thank the Board of Legislators for its consideration of our concerns and suggestions.

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