OCTOBER 7, 2008

COUNTY BUDGET PROCESS INVOLVES MUCH WORK, DELIBERATION

Soon, the County Executive will present the Legislature with his 2009 budget. And every year at this time, the rumor mill starts churning out in full force. Rumors abound with stories of programs being cut and employees facing layoffs.

And yes, at times things like this do happen, but mostly they don't, and no amount of reassurances will quell this mill from churning out a new scenario daily. But it is probably human nature; I, too, worry about putting bread on the table for my family, so why shouldn't others.

Thankfully, there is a process that allows for input at every level to come before the Legislature and discuss their concerns in regards to the budget. For weeks, the Legislature holds budget hearings, and departments get an opportunity to discuss their wants, needs, proposals, initiatives and vision. Then, the legislators have the opportunity to ask their own questions; these questions may take an entirely different slant than that proposed by the county executive and his departments.

That's the beauty of having a democracy where there is an executive branch and a legislative branch involved in the decision making. It ensures that there I s always a fair amount of checks and balances. In a sense though, there's really not a whole lot of wiggle room in a county budget. More than 80 percent of our budget is costs that are mandated to us by the State, and a large chunk of these costs are incurred by the health and human service area which I oversee as the chairman of the Health and Human Service Committee.

So in essence, is almost like a ward of the State, and this is something legislators and executive alike generally oppose. I personally wouldn't mind the mandate aspect of providing services, if I could have better control of the programs' purse strings. Local governments could manage expenditures better if they were able to operate without the heavy-handed state rules, regulations and bureaucracy that come along with these mandates. Our county executive will be part of a consortium that will be meeting and working with other local governments to see how we can work with the State to ease some of the mandated burden off our budgets. This is nothing new, it is nothing more than a power struggle between a higher level of government versus a lower level, and for years local governments have cried foul.

But who knows, the time may be right. Right now, Albany is in a huge financial mess and the current nationwide financial mess will only make Albany dump more stuff on us locals. So, it would make sense to sit down and talk about it, after all, we're dealing with bread from everybody's table.

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