Advertisement. Advertise with us

26 Jobs, Services On

County Chopping Block

By DON MATHISEN • for AllOTSEGO.com

County Treasurer Dan Crowell, middle, discusses the budget with county Reps. Rick Hulse, District 8, left, and Ed Lentz, District 5. (Don Mathisen/AllOTSEGO.com)
County Treasurer Dan Crowell, middle, discusses the budget with county Reps. Rick Hulse, District 8, left, and Ed Lentz, District 5. (Don Mathisen/AllOTSEGO.com)

COOPERSTOWN – The county Board of Representatives is on track to cut 19 full-time and 7 part-time employees, slash some services and raise property taxes by about $100,000.

That’s according to county Treasurer Dan Crowell and county Rep. Don Lindberg, R-Worcester, who chairs the Budget Review Committee.

“The committee has identified departments, dollar amounts and in some cases the number of positions to be cut,” said Crowell. “The committee is communicating with department heads to find the most efficient way to make the cuts with the lest negative impact on services.”

The job reductions, if approved by the full Board of Representatives, will save the county about $1.2 million.

In other measures to close the $4.2 million gap “we voted to keep all the bed tax money,” said Lindberg.


That means the county will not be sending an estimated $213,000 to the municipalities from taxes collected on stays at hotels, motels, inns and B&Bs.

Cuts were made to the county’s contributions to Water and Soil, Cooperative Extension and the Otsego County Fair.

Department heads were able to identify some service cuts and revenue enhancements.

But in the case of the Department of Social Services, the committee did not accept the full $700,000 in additional anticipated revenue.

A fundamental disagreement developed among some committee members. At one point voices were raised and tension filled the room.

Rep. Katherine Stuligross, D-Oneonta, then called for a recess as a way of cooling things down.

In the end, the committee acknowledged $500,000 in anticipated additional revenue for the department.

The treasurer will file a tentative budget on Nov. 16 with the board clerk.

The Board with hold a public hearing the last week of November. Then the Board will have the opportunity to make changes during their first meeting in December.

If the Board can’t muster a majority in favor of the modified spending plan by mid December, the tentative budget becomes the official budget.

Posted

3 Comments

  1. How about the twenty-five thousand dollars in mileage that the County Board of Representatives has? I bet you that most people don’t know that the Board gets paid mileage to attend meetings?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Related Articles

The Partial Observer: Hundreds Celebrate CCS, Community ‘Icon’ Howard

In an unusual scene the afternoon of Saturday, September 7 at Cooperstown Central School, it wasn’t until after the varsity football game ended that the parking lots around the high school began to really fill up with cars. The reason? Hundreds of people gathered at the school’s auditorium to pay their respects, share remembrances, have a laugh, and perhaps even shed a tear or two as longtime influential community figure and CCS educator, coach, and athletics Hall of Fame member Don Howard was celebrated posthumously. Howard passed away in early June at the age of 82.…

Otsego SWCD Back On Track after NYS Comptroller Audit

Following an in-depth audit conducted by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s office, the Otsego County Soil and Water Conservation District and its governing board “have been strengthened in ways that are exemplary for any type of organization,” SWCD Board Chair Margaret Kennedy said in a telephone interview on Monday, April 8. “We are right where we need to be,” Kennedy added with assurance. Kennedy, one of two members of the Otsego County Board of Representatives serving on the SWCD board, explained that the OSC audit released last month was a performance audit, intended to examine policies, procedures, and internal controls, and to identify areas in need of improvement.…