When seven county executives representing the Mid-Hudson region compare their current and future challenges, they can’t help but hit on the same themes.
The county officials discussed “Planning for the Realities of the New Decade” in front of 380 of the region’s business, nonprofit and local government leaders at Pattern for Progress’ annual President’s Day Breakfast February 22 at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel. Panelists were Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus, Orange County Deputy County Executive James O’Donnell, Putnam County Executive Robert Bondi, Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, Sullivan County Legislature Chairman Jonathan Rouis, Ulster County Executive Michael Hein, and Westchester Deputy County Executive Kevin Plunkett.
Westchester County’s property taxes are highest in the country, and Putnam is eleventh on that list, but all seven speakers detailed the difficulty of being on the front line with taxpayers when more than 70% of their budgets are made up of costs associated with unfunded mandates handed down from the state. “It drives us crazy,” said Vanderhoef. “Fundamental reform is necessary.” Hein added, “They shift the burden to local governments, so local governments answer to the taxpayer and they don’t have to. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.”
The leaders laid out many of their ideas and innovations in cutting costs and sharing services, from combining landfills in Putnam to restructuring snowplowing in Ulster. O’Donnell talked about a plan to share jail services across county lines and talked up regional use of Stewart Airport, where the new business accelerator is “booming”. Bondi said he was addressing multiple opportunities for privatization, from the paramedic service to a children’s camp. Rouis, who is Sullivan County’s chief elected official, said the challenge was to find efficiencies that are “fiscally sustainable, not one-time shots”. Plunkett, part of an 8- week-old administration in Westchester, said “Government can’t deliver a Cadillac; it may have to drive a Chevy. We need to focus on that at every level of government.”
Jonathan Drapkin, president of Pattern for Progress and moderator of the panel, said it was this kind of dialog that can lead to the resolution of the region’s economic woes. “For the Hudson Valley to survive and prosper in the next decade, it will require building bridges across county lines, across town lines, across village lines … from the business community to the environmental community … and unions must be part of this,” he said, adding that unions were an integral part of New York City’s emergence from the fiscal crisis of the early 1970’s. “This means we will need to, and I have to use a difficult word here, trust each other, in order to get through these dark days of our economic crisis.”
The panel also answered questions from the audience about rewards for municipal sharing, incentives for green building, support for veterans, the role of community colleges and regional collaboration on tourism. Responding to a question about the state’s announcement last week to close some state parks and cut back hours at others, Steinhaus said he was “strident” about protecting parks in Dutchess. “It’s one of the keys to economic development. It’s part of the quality of life families want” when they reside in or visit an area.
