TVCC Issues Report on County Budget

The County Fiscal Affairs Committee of the Town and Village Civic Club of Scarsdale has issued their report on the 2012-13 Westchester County budget. The in-depth report on County finances was written by Jackie Irwin, Bill Kay III, James Wetmur and Mark Lewis.

The report was issued to the public by the Executive Committee under the expeditious treatment procedure of the TVCC by-laws. The full membership will act on the report at their next membership meeting on February 2, 2012. County Executive Rob Astorino will attend the 2/2/12 meeting and give an address on the "State of the County" and take questions from the audience.

Here is a summary of the conclusions of the committee’s report. The full report can be viewed here.

• We support County initiatives to seek contributions toward the primary cost of healthcare from all County employees. …We also believe that securing employee participation in paying for healthcare should be a component of any upcoming union contract negotiations.
• We reluctantly support the reduction of 336 positions from County government and recommend that these positions not be restored, as has been the practice of the Board of Legislators several times in recent years. …Our support is reluctant because this headcount reduction requires 210 layoffs which disrupts families and will force those laid off to try to find jobs in an already difficult employment environment.
• We recommend that the County continue to fund the contracts for three neighborhood health centers for at least three months into 2012 to provide a transition and study period, rather than terminating the non-mandated funding for the contracts with the health centers on January 1, 2012.
• We commend the County’s decision to pay all of its 2011 New York State pension fund contribution liabilities in full and recommend that the County consider its participation in the New York State Pension Stabilization Program, if any, year by year.
• We believe the County should urge the Cornell Cooperative Extension to adopt a regional model that encompasses larger areas of the State rather than administer separate offices more locally, in many cases in each county. To help facilitate this transition, we recommend that County government continue to fund the Cornell Cooperative Extension program Westchester for 3 additional months, or other reasonable but finite transition period, into 2012.
• County government should continue efforts to consolidate departments and services to control costs and cut expenses wherever possible.
• The County Executive should release preliminary budgets for expenditures and capital by the end of September including reorganizations of County services and departments if any are contemplated and where any more than nominal lead times are needed