State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli last week designated 25 municipalities across the state as “fiscally stressed,” including 10 city and county governments that received the highest designation of “significant fiscal stress.” One of those 10 communities is Westchester County.
“Fewer local governments are considered fiscally stressed, but those with persistent financial problems are struggling to stay out of the red and fix their problems,” said DiNapoli. “While the results may be encouraging in some areas, there are municipalities that should focus on near-term financial risks and implement more prudent long-term planning.”
Westchester and three other county governments – Nassau, Suffolk and Monroe – have budgets under “significant fiscal stress.” Neighboring Rockland County was labeled under “moderate fiscal stress.” Last year, Westchester was labeled “moderate fiscal stress.”
DiNapoli’s monitoring system evaluates local governments on nine financial indicators and creates a fiscal stress score. Indicators assess fund balance, cash on hand, short-term borrowing, fixed costs, and patterns of operating deficits. The system also evaluates information such as population trends, poverty and unemployment in order to establish a separate “environmental” score for each municipality that can be used to help describe the environment in which these local governments operate.
DiNapoli’s report continues a narrative from County Executive George Latimer and the Democratic Super Majority on the Board of Legislators that the county’s fiscal troubles are a result of former County Executive Rob Astorino’s passage of seven county budgets without increasing spending or increasing county property taxes.
Latimer said the “previous administration used reserve funds, one-shot revenues and staff reductions to deliver on ideological commitment rather than developing a steady stream of revenue.”
“This problem didn’t happen overnight, and it isn’t going to be fixed overnight,” Latimer has stated again and again over his first year in office. He also said to the Journal News that his administration has been working toward “more creative and sustainable revenue streams.”
What those new and creative revenue streams are has yet to be revealed. A county property tax increase at the end of the year for 2019 is a certainty – the only question is how high it will be.
Latimer, and the Democrats on the County Board, have rejected privatization plans for both Playland and the Westchester Airport, both of which would have created new revenue streams for the county.
We repeat what we have written in the past: that after seven years of 0 percent in county property tax increases, one or two years with tax increases can be expected.
A new contract for county Civil Service Employees Association workers will cost the county around $40 million in additional expenses every year; 3,000 county CSEA workers have been without a contract since 2011.
Latimer has presented a reasonable proposal to CSEA workers that would run through 2012. It includes no retroactive raises for 2012-13, 1 percent raises for 2014-17, 2 percent raises for 2018-19, and 2.25 percent raises for 2020 and 2021.
Health insurance payments by CSEA would be made depending on their pay scale, with current employees paying between 5 and 10 percent. Future employees would pay 10 to 15 percent of their premiums.
CSEA-Westchester members are voting on the new proposed nine-year contract. While some are opposed to the contract, this is a reasonable proposal sent to them by Latimer, and probably the only proposal the county and its taxpayers can afford.
If, as Comptroller DiNapoli states, Westchester County government is under “severe financial stress” and taxpayers will be paying at least 3 to 5 percent more in county property taxes next year, there is a limited amount of available funds to pay for union contracts.
