Ryan signs $342 million budget for 2020
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan signed his first county budget Thursday, approving, without change, the $342.28 million spending plan adopted earlier this month by the county Legislature.
Ryan signed the 2020 budget during a ceremony in the Esopus Town Hall.
The budget increases spending by about 4 percent from the 2019 level of $329.26 million.
The property tax levy — the amount to be generated by property taxes — is decreasing by 0.25 percent, to $73.31 million from the 2019 total of $73.51 million.
The budget anticipates a 5 percent increase in sales tax revenue and draws $12 million from the county’s fund balance to close the gap between spending and revenues generated by property taxes and other sources.
The budget signed by Ryan adds 34 new positions to county government, including 18 funded solely by county taxpayers.
It also includes funding for Ryan’s “Big Five” initiatives: a “green new deal” for Ulster County; ramping up the county’s efforts to combat opioid abuse; expanding and diversifying the county’s skills-training programs to ensure county residents have the tools to find good-paying jobs; redefining the county’s criminal justice efforts; and making county government more responsive and responsible.
Also, according to Ryan’s office, the budget increases funding for the Sheriff’s Office, establishes the new Ulster County Department of Economic Development, adds seven jobs in the Public Defender’s Office, funds a full-time Youth Bureau director and human rights commissioner, creates the position of chief diversity officer, and increases funding for the Office for the Aging.
County legislators made more than two dozen changes to Ryan’s proposed spending plan, though some of the most controversial of the proposed amendments — including one that would have clawed back a pay raise given to an assistant deputy county executive weeks after Ryan took office — were withdrawn from consideration.
Many of the amendments to the budget were proposed by legislators and funded programs and services provided by nonprofit agencies, including $10,000 to The People’s Place for its food insecurity programs and $15,000 to pay for outof-county firefighter training for volunteer firefighters.
Legislators also approved an amendment to reinstate a confidential secretary in the Ulster County Comptroller’s Office and increase the salary and hours of that office’s director of internal audit and control; and another that gives the county’s nonunion management staff a 2 percent pay raise in the upcoming year.
Legislators tapped the $700,000 contingency fund built into the budget to fund the additional spending.