The 2011 county budget is compressed but balanced

Just shy of 2 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 8, the Dutchess County Legislature adopted its 2011 budget with a zero increase in spending. Numerous tough decisions were made amid a grueling process that forced us to reshape and reprioritize.

A total of 83 positions were eliminated, including 43 occupied. Some of these corresponded to department restructuring, including the merger of the Office of the Aging, Veteran’s Services and Youth Bureau into the new Department of Services. Risk Management and Personnel were combined to create the Department of Human Resources. Real Property Tax Services was folded into the Finance Department. The Consumer Affairs Department was all but eliminated, with its Weights and Measures subdivision transferred to the Health Department. The Human Rights Commission will be completely phased out, with a small amount of money appropriated to allow open discrimination cases to be closed during the first few months of 2011. Future discrimination and consumer protection claims will now be handled exclusively by the state.

Management employees are now expected to contribute toward their health insurance, the Board of Elections saw its budget reduced by half a million dollars, including pay reductions to the commissioners and the closure of a probations office in Dover and three senior centers (Millerton, Pawling and Fishkill).

A substantial amount from our fund balance will be used to pay the debt service on the Resource Recovery Agency waste-to-energy plant. We accepted optimistic sales tax revenue projections based upon a continuation of the promising sales tax returns witnessed in the last two quarters. The Legislature will reinstate a mortgage tax that had been allowed to expire in 2009.

Several services and programs slated for elimination have been partially restored. Cornell Cooperative Extension had 60 percent of its funding restored, including $185,000 for agriculture, $150,000 for 4-H, $110,000 for environment and $75,000 for nutrition. Soil and Water Conservation received $200,000, the Agriculture and Farmland Protection received $1,000 for administrative support and the Arts Council received $100,000.

I was able to prevail, despite much resistance, in maintaining our current level of support to the county’s mental health clinics, and we restored an $80,000 cut that would have resulted in a 60-bed closure to the county’s only emergency homeless shelter. As readers of this column know, I am committed to both of these causes not only because I believe society needs to maintain reverence for the dignity of society’s most vulnerable but also because investing in them has proven cost savings. Many proposed cuts to youth services and delinquent prevention programs were sustained.

We maintained a Department of Social Services Wheels to Work program that matches BOCES-restored vehicles with DSS recipients to help them move off the public dole. We also retained a Family Court child advocate program while rejecting proposed changes to replace assigned family court counsel with public defenders.

New positions include a domestic violence worker at the Sheriff’s Office (particularly in light of the in-district Pleasant Valley homicide this past weekend) and a solid waste commissioner.

End result: The county is compressed but balanced.

Michael Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and Millbrook in the Dutchess County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.