No layoffs or tax levy hike in budget
Ryan to unveil 2021 spending proposal during address this morning at college
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan will unveil a 2021 budget on Thursday that he said will keep the property tax levy at the current level, allow for equitable economic growth, provide care and support for residents, and avoid layoffs.
“I’m putting forth a budget with a zero percent increase in the tax levy, keeping that flat,” Ryan said in a phone interview Wednesday. “That’s now nine years in a row, including the two years that I’ve been at the helm. And also we’ll do that with zero layoffs to our workforce.”
The executive said his budget will allow the county to deliver services to residents that will be as good as, if not better than, those offered now without putting more financial pressure on them “at a time of just tremendous economic pressure and need and pain.”
Ryan’s proposed spending plan for the coming year totals about $333.8 million, a reduction of more than $9 million from the current county budget of about $342.9 million. It calls for the tax levy, which is the total amount to be generated by
property taxes, to remain at the 2020 level of about $76.3 million.
Ryan will formally unveil his budget in an address scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday in the Quimby Theater at SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge. The speech will be streamed live on the executive’s Facebook page, facebook.com/UlsterCountyExecutive.
The biggest “moving piece” of the budget process, Ryan said, was the early retirement incentive the county offered that is being taken by 125 employees. The executive said that resulted in just shy of $10 million in annualized savings for the county.
Heading into next year, the county will be funding 100 fewer positions than it did in the 2020 budget, Ryan said, but he noted that’s being accomplished entirely through retirements and attrition, not layoffs.
And despite the reduction in staff, Ryan said he is confident the county will be able to continue delivering the services residents need. He said the county has done a lot to become more efficient and effective, including the creation of a Recovery Service Center in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the center, Ryan said, the county is able to provide a single point of contact for people seeking services rather than having them make several phone calls and fill out paperwork for different departments.
The budget proposal calls for using $11.76 million in fund balance appropriations to offset expenses, according to Assistant Deputy County Executive Dan Torres. He said that’s approximately $820,000 less than was used for the 2020 budget.
Torres said of the total fund balance appropriations, $5.6 million would come from the general fund balance, approximately $4.1 million less than in the 2020 adopted budget, leaving the county with an unappropriated fund balance of $19.4 million.
County guidelines call for maintaining a fund balance of 5% to 10% of operating expenses, Torres said. He said Ryan’s plan would result in a level of 6.5%.
“We were able to draw down more fund balance from debt service and county road funds for the 2021 budget, which enabled us to push more of the tax levy to the general fund, allowing us to use less this year,” Torres said in an email.
Ryan said there are two key efforts driving his proposed budget, the first of which is a focus on an equitable growth of the economy as the area recovers from the pandemic. He said the county’s proposed capital budget, which is separate from its operating budget, includes about $48.5 million for infrastructure improvement projects. The budget also includes $5.3 million in spending on economic development and workforce development efforts, as well as $16.2 million for education, most of which will go to SUNY Ulster, Ryan said.
“The other aspect of the budget is, as we come out of COVID, we can’t forget that it’s not just about the traditional components of growth and economic development,” Ryan said. “It’s about taking care of each other as human beings ... and not losing that sense of community and caring for each other that we really showcased in the crisis.”
Ryan said his budget includes $13.7 million for mental health services, including $900,000 for mobile mental health. There also is a total of $36.6 million to support children and young people with early intervention and child care programs, he said, as well as $36.7 million for Medicaid.