Town leaders rap Hein over speech

One town supervisor in Ulster County said County Executive Michael Hein, during his State of the County address, “declared war” on the towns, while another said the executive “spanked” the towns in his remarks.

Rochester Supervisor Carl Chipman and Ulster Supervisor James Quigley criticized Hein for suggesting towns across the county have failed to reduce town property taxes after the county assumed more than $20 million in costs

from the towns by taking over the state-mandated welfare and election costs.

“He basically declared war on the towns, that’s the message I got,” said Quigley, who did not attend Hein’s speech Tuesday evening at SUNY Ulster.

“He spanked the towns, there’s no doubt there,” Chipman said. “I didn’t think it was very fair to do that.”

In his address, Hein said that “with all the re- lief we provided, the widespread property tax reductions that the Legislature and I, as well as our citizens, had anticipated did not happen.”

But the town leaders said Hein failed to acknowledge the unique challenges municipalities have in developing their budgets, or the fact that some of towns have reduced their property tax levies.

Woodstock Supervisor Jeremy Wilber said his town has faced significant infrastructure issues in recent years, including the need for major upgrades to the Town Hall and the town’s community center, as well as four bridges that needed to be replaced.

“So yes, we raised taxes,” Wilber said Wednesday. “I was not going to let cars and trucks roll into the river because we were too cheap to fix a bridge.”

Wilber said that despite the tax increase, the town did not exceed the state imposed tax cap. He said the county takeover of welfare and election costs took roughly $76,000 off the town’s shoulders, an amount, he said, that was “completely obliterated” by the debt service on the infrastructure bonds.

“It’s not fair to the towns who have done the right thing, like the town of Rochester,” said Chipman, noting property taxes in his town are lower today than they were when he first took office eight years ago. “If we look at the property tax load, 70 percent is the school district, 17 percent is the county, 9 percent is the town and 3 percent is special districts,” Chipman said. “He (Hein) seems ver y concerned about the crummy little 9 percent.” Quigley said the basis for many of the county’s assumptions when it comes to town property taxes is incorrect.

“I’ve already advised him (Hein) that there are factual errors [in his analysis],” Quigley said. “

Still, the three supervisors said they would take Hein up on his invitation to sit down and look at the way services are provided, but only if they are treated as independently elected officials. Hein said in his address that “as county executive, I am willing to put everything on the table. I invite everyone to join me and examine each and every essential service provided to our citizens and collectively decide who is best equipped to provide that service.”

“Whether it is the towns, the city ( Kingston), the county or even through partnerships, we have to disrupt the entire system,” Hein said. “It will collapse if we do not, and our taxpayers will be the ones that suffer.”

Said Chipman: “I’m more than willing to have a dialogue on changing things, but it needs to be a dialogue of equal partners, not with the paternalistic approach he sometimes has on things.

“I don’t want someone to dictate to me,” he said.