MINUTES
OTHERS: C.E.’s Office: Bill Randolph; Budget: Kate Carrano, Leslie Bennett, Diane Nolan; CBAC: George Hosey, Barbara Strauss; LWV: Roberta Wiernik; WESPAC: Mark Jacobs, Susan Gabriele; Radiation & Public Health Project: Joseph Mangano; STAR Foundation: Scott Cullen, Pamela Slater; Others: S. Pupe; BOL: Tara Bernard, Steve Bass, Sally Schecter, Robert Boland, Chris Chang, Tina Seckerson
Chairman Wishnie called the meeting to order at 9:35 a.m.
DISCUSSION:
BKS FINAL REPORT: [ON FILE]:
· There was a discussion with regard to the BKS final report.
·
Anticipated spending
increase is $39.9 million or 3.7%. The
major elements accounting for this change are:
Health: $10,850,000: due to continued growth in Services for
Children with Disabilities program
· DSS: 12,200,000: due to increases in Medical Assistance, Child Welfare and Indirect Services Programs
· Corrections: $7,569,000: due to contract settlement and cost of m4edical services to prisoners
· Transportation: $6,549,000: due to bus operating assistance program
· Employee Health: $7,708,000: due to dramatic increase in cost of drugs, increase in medical costs and a $1.5 million provision to increased the retained earnings of the County’s Health Insurance Fund.
· Reduction of $9,528,000 in debt service does not cause a savings in taxation.
· Sales Tax: $1.36 is the most appropriate, conservative number to use
COMMITTEE ON BUDGET & APPROPRIATIONS
MINUTES-DECEMBER 8, 2000
PAGE 2
Expenditures:
· FICA: BKS recomputed the County’s 2001 budgeted payroll costs on which FICA taxes are calculated. Their calculation resulted in a total wage base of $297.8 million of which $275.4 million is apportioned to the Miscellaneous Budget. This amount differs from the $279.9 million base amount used by the County to compute the total FICA costs charged to the Miscellaneous Budget primarily due to the County’s inclusion of 207C wages in its base.
· Health benefits: net effect of their recommendations results in approximately a $855,000 reduction to the Miscellaneous Budget.
· Total impact of recommendations: $5.9 million
· Mrs. Carrano stated that they agree with the FICA recommendation, and are agreeable with the Health Insurance recommendations but would like to see the sales tax number lowered.
On motion of Legislator Latimer, seconded by Legislator Kaplowitz, the motion to approve the deletions report (attached) was carried by a vote of 10-0 with Legislators Noto, Carsky, LaMotte, and Swanson signing “Without Prejudice”.
COMMITTEE ON BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS REPORT
CONCERNING THE 2001 COUNTY BUDGET
Honorable Board of Legislators
County of Westchester
800 Michaelian Office Building
White Plains, New York 10601
Honorable Colleagues:
On Monday, October 16, 2000, County Executive Andrew J. Spano forwarded his proposed 2001 County Capital Budget that the Budget and Appropriations Committee of your Honorable Board immediately began analyzing and discussing. A month later, on Tuesday, November 14, 2000, the County Executive forwarded his proposed 2001 County Operating Budget. Having had the time to essentially complete its work on the proposed 2001 Capital Budget, your Committee on Budget and Appropriations was able to devote full attention to the proposed 2001 Operating Budget upon its arrival.
Your Committee held two hearings on the proposed budget, the first on Monday evening, November 20, 2000 in Yonkers and the second on Tuesday evening, November 28, 2000 in Yorktown. Further, your Honorable Board held the public hearing required by our Charter on Thursday evening, November 30, 2000, in its chambers. These hearings allowed hundreds of people to express their views on all aspects of the budget as proposed.
In addition, your Committee has benefited from the testimony of Commissioners and heads of major departments, as well as from analysis of the proposed budgets by our auditors, Bennett Kielson Storch De Santis and Company which presented its report to your Committee on Friday, December 8, 2000.
On Monday, December 4, 2000, pursuant to Section 167.81 of the Westchester County Charter as amended by Local Law 8-1994, your Committee on Budget and Appropriations filed a memorandum of proposed additions to the proposed 2001 Budget. Today, having further considered the proposed Budget and the needs of those who live and work in Westchester, your Committee is recommending a decrease in proposed spending by $2,994,479, reducing the tax levy to a total of 5.15%. This means that your Committee has taken the largest tax cut in Westchester County history, as proposed by the County Executive, and lowered it even further. Your Committee wishes to note that this is the third consecutive year that it has accomplished this on behalf of your Honorable Board.
Your Committee also wishes to repeat something it stated in last year’s Report because it applies equally well this year: this unprecedented tax cut was accomplished without sacrificing programs that are aimed at improving the lot of those among us who are in need, whether they be the young, the elderly, or those who exist on the margins of our society. Indeed, this year not only have these critical programs been maintained, in many cases they have been enhanced and/or complimented by new programs all designed to ensure that Westchester’s enviable and extraordinarily high quality of life is shared by all of its people. With this in mind, your Committee commends the following for your consideration.
DELETIONS TO BUDGET
OPERATING BUDGET REVENUES
Finance (150000)
Sales Tax $ 984,000
This adjustment will allow for a
more accurate reflection of this
anticipated revenue.
____________________________________________________________
Total Finance $ 984,000
TOTAL REVENUE DELETIONS $ 984,000
OPERATING BUDGET EXPENDITURES
BOARD OF LEGISLATORS (100000)
Expenditure:
Annual Regular (1010) $ 60,860
Employee Benefits (521650) 18,258
To eliminate the position of Confidential Secretary
to the Chairman and Vice Chair, Grade XI.
________________________________________________________________________
TOTAL BOARD OF LEGISLATORS $ 79,118
YOUTH BUREAU (110400)
Expenditure:
Contractual Services (4380) $ 20,000
To eliminate funding for a program that can
be funded from other sources.
_________________________________________________________________________ TOTAL YOUTH BUREAU $ 20,000
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (160000)
Expenditure
Interest on Bonds (4463) $ 200,000
Deleted upon the advice of the Board’s
auditors
_____________________________________________________________
TOTAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY $ 200,000
PARKS & RECREATION &
CONSERVATION (420000)
Expenditure
Annual Regular (1010) $ 17,970
Employee Benefits (521650) 5,391
To correct an error in salary grade.
Interest on Bonds (4463) $ 125,000
Deleted upon the advice of the Board’s
auditors,
_____________________________________________________________
TOTAL PARKS, RECREATION
& CONSERVATION $ 148,361
MISCELLANEOUS (520000)
Expenditure:
Retirement (1650) $ 250,000
FICA (1651) 550,000
Health Insurance (1680) 500,000
Residents’ Tuition (2115) 200,000
Deleted upon the advice of the Board’s
auditors.
______________________________________________________________________________
TOTAL MISCELLANEOUS $ 1,500,000
DEBT SERVICE (510000)
Interest on Bonds (4463) $ 1,047,000
Deleted upon the advice of the Board’s
Auditors.
Total Debt Service $ 1,047,000
TOTAL OPERATING DELETIONS $ 2,994,479
Peekskill Sanitary Sewer District (601610)
Non Recurring (4310) $ 23,000
After careful review, your Committee
finds this deletion warranted
COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
Having completed its work on the proposed 2001County Budget, your Committee wishes to offer some remarks and advice stemming from its experiences.
Your Committee first wants to compliment the Administration for once again presenting a budget containing a significant tax cut and for continuing to simplify the Budget document and to more widely disseminate it through the Internet. When this process of simplification and accessibility began two years ago, your Committee urged its continuance and enhancement. Accordingly, your Committee is gratified with the strides that have been made and reaffirms its desire that this be an on-going process toward making something very good even better.
Indeed, the participation of the public in your Committee’s discussions on the Budget is evidence of the success of opening up the process through the greater availability of information. Your Honorable Board, following the example of the Chairman, has striven to strengthen the partnership between County government and the public that gives it rise. Each year your Committee has witnessed a growth of citizen involvement in the crafting of the budget. This expanded citizen participation has brought an expanded focus to your Committee’s deliberations, one for which it is truly grateful.
In noting public involvement, the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee must, of course, be singled out for its on-going contribution of talent, time and invaluable advice. All those who care about Westchester are continually in the debt of this outstanding group of volunteers.
Your Committee would also like to mention something about its own decision-making process. While the actual determinations that are made with respect to the Budget are often quite complex, the philosophy that underlies them is quite simple: to spend the least to accomplish the most for the many. This doesn’t mean that there is always accord on the best way to accomplish this. Indeed, any who have attended sessions of your Committee know that there are divisions over decisions. But divisions are not divisiveness, for the bond of the common good always has proven stronger then any one particular approach to an issue. Bipartisanship is a word too often used and too little practiced. But this is not the case with your Committee. The spirit of cooperation, and of a shared mission has enabled your Committee to approach the task of finalizing the Budget with zeal and has led it to conclude that what it is presenting to your Honorable Board is truly a clear vision for a dynamic and compassionate County.
At this most unusual time in our nation’s history, when some have questioned how well government can function when political passions run high, your Committee, and this entire participatory process, is proof positive that divergent views can – and will – coalesce for the good of the people.
Dated: December 8, 2000
White Plains, New York
COMMITTEE ON BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS