MONTICELLO – Legislators, by a 6-2 vote, approved the $268,364,511 Sullivan County Budget for 2023 on Thursday, adding a few items just before passage.

As previously reported in the Democrat, the budget does not propose raising taxes, incurring new debt or dipping into the fund balance, and eliminates the Solid Waste Access Fee, which is expected to save residents $45 - $50 and businesses up to $750 annually per parcel. 

The budget, which can be viewed in its entirety on the County website, also includes more funding for road and bridgework, long-term plans for County facilities and parks, the creation of a new indoor arena at SUNY Sullivan, the continuation of Move Sullivan, implementation of housing recommendations, demolition of blighted properties via the Land Bank, and investment in the Youth Bureau, Bureau of Fire, employee training and leadership development. 

The budget also expands the Sullivan Promise Scholarship to a second full year of tuition at SUNY Sullivan.

Furthermore, the County Clerk’s Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles will renovate their offices to “improve workflow and customer service,” while the Office of Emergency Management will add a deputy commissioner and support staff.

“The budget approved today is testament to the prudent fiscal management of this Legislature and the County Manager,” said Legislature Chairman Rob Doherty, who was one of the votes in favor. “We continue to reduce our debt, increase our services, provide for our employees and give relief to our taxpayers. And we’re well-positioned to face whatever economic conditions come in 2023.”

Legislators Nadia Rajsz and Luis Alvarez opposed the budget. Rajsz said it should not have been flat adding, “We don’t know what the future will hold for our taxpayers and employees. We need to be properly prepared for 2023.”

Alvarez, who said the budget should have been analyzed further, noted that “we’re in the business of taking care of people – that’s what this should be about.”

Amendments

Before the budget’s final vote, legislators had the opportunity to add items, known as amendments. 

Rajsz, referencing recent discussion about long lines, lack of poll inspectors and resources on Election Day, asked that the Legislature consider giving at least $100,000 more to the Board of Elections (BOE) for “equipment that they need to operate efficiently.” 

Doherty countered by saying there weren’t long lines in 2021 or 2020 (a Presidential election year); in both cases, he claimed more ballots were cast than in 2022. He also pointed to the use of pre-printed ballots in the past, as opposed to individually printing them, which the BOE did this year. 

 Rajsz noted that there were nine days in which people could have voted early.

“I opted to go the day of the election, and I hit peak time - five o’clock - then I waited 20 minutes. I didn’t die,” she remarked. “I wait half an hour at Walmart. Even longer at ShopRite. No one dies. So these people arguing that there was some kind of chaos this year because they have to wait? Baloney - they could have gone earlier in the day. They created their own disaster by all congregating at the same time.”

Doherty said the decision to not pre-print ballots was made by the BOE (it was not State-mandated), and they did so because they didn’t want to waste unused ballots. Rajsz stated they also sought to decrease error (people receiving the wrong ballot). 

“To put up $100,000, when pre-printed ballots worked fine for years, is not a prudent financial move,” said Doherty. 

Neither elections commissioner - Lori Benjamin or Deanna Senyk (Rajsz’s daughter) - were present to comment.

The amendment ultimately failed, as only Rajsz and Steingart voted in favor.

DA’s Office

Last year, the Legislature passed a resolution to make salaries in the District Attorney’s office more competitive regionally and to address issues of manpower. That created a two-tier system for the office’s eight assistant district attorneys (ADAs), with the starting salary for an ADA in Tier 2 being $63,500. They’d also receive a two percent raise annually and, after seven years, would be making a little over $72,000.

At the time, Doherty said “significantly larger” Orange County starts its ADAs at $65,000, while Cattaraugus County, referenced as comparable to Sullivan in size, starts ADAs at $59,000.

As for the four ADAs in Tier 1, they now make (from the top person down) $108,600, $102,000 and $90,000.

The resolution also created two stipends to be given at the discretion of the District Attorney (DA) to an ADA for certain work, as well as two additional administrative assistant positions for the DA’s office.

While that resolution was seen as a solution to some of the issues presented, there were still some concerns expressed by DA Megan Galligan regarding the absence of cost-of-living increases. 

In October 2021, Galligan said she wasn’t asking the legislature to guarantee the implementation of cost-of-living increases, but rather commit to having a conversation. She added, at the time, that she’s never asked for cost-of-living increases that are out of line with increases routinely provided to similar employees in other County offices.

Galligan had noted that from time-to-time, the County Manager recommends that non-union employees receive certain adjustments, and that the exclusion of positions in her office from those incremental increases over the past several years or more is what got them into the predicament in the first place.

Doherty’s position was that he had “no interest” in giving people a cost-of-living adjustment if they are on a seven-year step system (Tier 2 ADAs) and are also receiving two percent raises annually. He did say, however, that he was in favor of creating a mechanism for Tier 1 ADAs to do that, where they’d be treated as management confidential employees, for raise purposes only.

Galligan, however, stood firm in her belief that both merit-based and step increases do not substitute for a cost-of-living increase.

Galligan was present at Thursday’s Public Safety and Law Enforcement Committee meeting (the first she had attended in several months) to give her final report as DA. In November, she was elected to the State Supreme Court’s Third Judicial District and will leave the DA position come January 1. 

She once again argued for the 2-3 percent adjustment “most, if not all” management confidential staff were getting in the 2023 Budget. Later in the morning, Majority Leader Alan Sorensen introduced an amendment to include the DA’s office in those adjustments, which passed 8-0.

Union contracts

Doherty concluded Thursday’s meetings with news that the Civil Service Employees Association contract for Sullivan County Jail deputies and civil staff passed with union membership by a 74-7 vote. He said he, County Attorney Michael McGuire, Sheriff Mike Schiff and Jail Administrator Hal Smith had worked together to achieve this agreement.

Doherty stated that, for the first time in its history, the Legislature has buttoned up all the labor union contracts for several years to come, giving the County the ability to plan more precisely in future budgets. 

“Labor is your number one cost in this County,” said Doherty. “Having cost certainty going forward is a very big deal. It builds a base so we can do other things.”