Apr. 23, 2009

Despite the recession, Westchester County government is strong and in a better position than any other county in the state to meet the challenges ahead, County Executive Andy Spano said tonight.

In his annual State of the County Address, Spano called his government “compassionate, yet fiscally conservative” and talked about the many and continuing steps the government has put in place in advance of the economic downturn to keep it financially stable.

“While our government continues on the right track, too many of our residents are facing the brunt of what this recession has wrought,” he said.

Spano detailed the many things his administration is doing to help residents suffering during the recession, including aggressive efforts to bring federal stimulus money to the county to create jobs; programs to prevent foreclosure; and ongoing efforts to cut county spending while maintaining services. The county has so far obtained about $80 million for a variety of projects including rebuilding roads and bridges, upgrading sewage treatment plants, energy efficiency projects, and encouraging green businesses. These projects will create thousands of jobs and stimulate the local economy.

An additional $2.7 million dollars will be used by the county’s One-Stop Employment Center to train the unemployed for jobs in new growth areas such as energy, green business and health care. Other expected stimulus funds include a $28.4 million dollar increase in Medicaid assistance this year (funds that will go solely for property tax relief); $2.3 million to keep renters from becoming homeless and $7.3 million to turn previously foreclosed homes into fair and affordable housing.

Spano stressed that while the nation is going through difficult times, the county has been able to weather the storm and keep tax increases at modest levels through prudent planning.

“Back in February when government after government announced dire news – layoffs, massive cuts in programs and services, high tax increases – we were not among them. And we are not among them now,” he told the Board of Legislators. “…We have always been fiscally conservative. We anticipated a decline in sales tax and mortgage fees so we budgeted accordingly. We continue to tighten our belts, actually spending less in 2009 than we spent in 2008, without eliminating needed services and programs.”

Specifically, the county eliminated $23 million from the budget over two years by cutting in every area, including personnel, overtime, travel, supplies, health benefits and equipment.

This has been done without cutting services “In times of trouble, more people rely on government to help them,” he said. “This is especially true when it comes to the most vulnerable: victims of domestic violence, the very poor and hungry, the frail elderly, children without parents to care for them, young people in trouble and those who need our attention to stay out of trouble.”

Alluding to people who argue that county government should be “rethought” or possibly eliminated, he said, ”We don’t need to rethink county government – we have been thinking all along. But more importantly we have been doing. During the past 12 years, we have taken county government from the equivalent of the Industrial Revolution to a Digital Evolution. We have reinvented county government for a new era. We’ve incorporated technology and green solutions in all our departments. We have reduced, we have modernized, and we have excelled.”

He stated further: “This government has been blamed for high taxes when, in fact, over the last five years, the county property tax has held the line at an average of 2.6 percent, far less than the consumer price index. And at the same time, we have served more people than ever. We created three new vital departments, Senior Programs and Services, Information Technology and Emergency Services; yet, we have 146 fewer employees than when I took office.”

He added, “Keeping our residents safe and protected is the first priority of county government. That means requiring sex offenders to wear GPS tracking bracelets to monitor their whereabouts, protecting women from domestic violence to help them start a new life and combating gang violence by getting illegal guns off the streets.”

“I don’t want to see one more child or young adult fall victim to gun violence. And, I am committed to putting initiatives in place that will make our neighborhoods safer,” Spano said. He noted the new gun shot -- more -- technology that, at his initiative, the county is buying for Yonkers and Mount Vernon.

In the hour-long speech, broadcast live on News 12, Spano highlighted several upcoming county government sponsored events and initiatives:

• May 12, a Financial Fitness free seminar designed to help people make wise financial choices. Experts will share information on credit cards, loans, household budgeting, planning for retirement and funding for college education. (Go to westchestergov.com/managing for details.)
  
• June 2, a Shared Services Conference for local governments, schools and special districts, so they can explore ways to further take advantage of the many county government services and experts. Offerings are varied and include public works, emergency services, IT, purchasing and more. So far this year, 88 school districts, local governments and special districts are saving millions of dollars by piggybacking on already existing county contracts. (westchestergov.com/sharedservices for more information.)
  
• June 19, a Volunteer conference to encourage volunteerism among people of all ages and match them to non-profit groups and governments in need of volunteers.

• To help local governments update their tax rolls – so that property taxes can be levied in a fair manner – the county government will hire a firm to take aerial and street level photographs of over 200,000 parcels county wide. These photographs will enable assessors to update their data, be better prepared to defend against legal challenges, and place their municipality in a position to minimize the costs of a reassessment. “

County government may seem big and amorphous,” Spano said, “Despite our efforts there still are plenty of people who are clueless about what we do. There will always be those who think there is too much government; that people should fend for themselves. Fewer laws. Less regulation. Of course, it takes just one look at this economy to see where that philosophy has brought us.”

Through visuals the county executive showed the hundreds of ways residents are protected and/or helped by county government programs. Here are some examples:

• Tracking bracelets are provided for Alzheimer’s patients and children with autism who may wander.
• Public health nurses travel into unsafe neighborhoods day and night to care for a sick adult or help a mother with a new infant.
• Health inspectors who ensure the safety of our food conducted nearly 10,000 unannounced inspections at the county's 3,500 restaurants and others food establishments last year.
• The police officers get drunk drivers off our parkways (a record 588 people arrested in 2008 for driving under influence of alcohol or drugs).
• Emergency dispatchers provide immediate assistance to those who call 9-1-1. Round-the-clock dispatchers received and handled more than 90,000 calls for help in 2008.
• Probation officers monitor the whereabouts of sex offenders.
• The county trained 22,000 first responders, including firefighters, and marshaled a volunteer army of 200 health care professionals and another 200 emergency volunteers to respond in a natural or manmade disaster.
• Westchester County is one of the only places in the nation to have a seamless communications system among fire and police departments, emergency medical services, hospitals and the county’s Bee-Line bus system.
• The county’s Department of Consumer Protection makes sure residents are protected from fraud and from unscrupulous home improvement contractors, obtaining for consumers $833,000 in restitution last year. Inspectors also check for outdated food in supermarkets, among many other things.
• The Department of Community Mental Health restructured its department to save $1 million this year by developing, among other things, a model program to cut Medicaid costs.
• Spano’s Global Warming Task force and its successor, the County Climate Change Advisory Council, work to decrease carbon emissions in all sectors of the county: governments, residents, businesses and schools.
• Playland Amusement Park will now be self-sufficient, saving taxpayers $3.3 million.

Spano’s speech can be summed up this way: “I believe that county government is doing exactly what it should be doing…working for you… Working to improve your lives, working to protect your families, and yes, working to save you tax dollars.”