Budget shortfall may mean cuts to nonprofits
The proposed spending cut is part of an effort to close an anticipated budget deficit
A county legislative committee has endorsed a plan to eliminate funding for some nonprofit agencies and cut aid for others.
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Members of the Ulster County Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee have endorsed a plan to eliminate funding for some nonprofit agencies and reduce funding for others to ease what is expected to be a multimillion-dollar shortfall in the county budget.
Committee members voted Thursday, June 25, to eliminate funding entirely for four organizations that lawmakers had funded in the 2020 budget. Eleven other programs saw their previously approved funding slashed, in some cases by 50 percent.
The county government contracts with the 15 organizations to provide a variety of services for the county.
Committee Vice Chairman
Ken Ronk said the county needed to rethink its funding in light of a drop in revenues due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing shutdown of public and private sector operations.
“The reason that we needed to do it is because of the budgetary constraints that we’re facing with the pandemic,” Ronk, R-Wallkill, said. “Our revenues are not coming in nearly as well as we expected pre-COVID, with some of them down as much as 30, 40, 50 percent.
“Along with cuts in state aid, we’re facing a pretty large budget deficit,” he added.
Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan has said the county could face a potential budget gap of upward of $40 million and has called on all county departments to cut their budgets by 10 percent. That call prompted lawmakers to reconsider the $843,750 in funding it had previously approved for 15 nonprofit agencies, ranging from the Ulster Performing Arts Center, area libraries and Cornell Cooperative Extension to Family of Woodstock.
Committee members voted Thursday to shave $201,095 in funding from those agencies.
The committee voted to eliminate entirely county taxpayer funding for the Resource Center for Accessible Living ($15,000), D&H Canal Historical Society ($10,000), Hudson River Maritime Museum ($30,000), and the Don’t Be A Monster anti-bullying program ($5,000). Each of those programs were slated to receive county funding for the first time in 2020. Eliminating that funding saved the county $60,000.
Additionally, lawmakers reduced funding to several organizations that had historically received county aid. Committee members agreed to continue to provide some funding to People’s Place, located in the city of Kingston, even though it will be the first year the county has funded the organization.
Commitee members voted to reduce funding to:
• Awareness drug and alcohol prevention program to $6,250 from $12,500 budgeted;
• Walker Valley Chemical Engine No. 1 to $5,000 from $10,000 budgeted;
• Ulster County Soil and Water Conservation District to $61,500 from $91,500 budgeted;
• People’s Place to $5,000 from $10,000 budgeted;
• Ulster County Community Action Committee to $14,375 from $28,750 budgeted;
• Arts Mid-Hudson to $60,000 from $90,000;
• Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County to $325,800 from $362,000 budgeted;
• Mid-Hudson Library Association to $76,050 from $84,500 budgeted;
• Family of Woodstock to $20,000 from $30,000;
• Dispute Resolution Center Inc. to $26,500 from $39,750; and
• Ulster County Performing Arts Center to $12,375 from $24,750 budgeted.
The full Legislature will voted on the recommended changes when it meets on Tuesday, July 21.