A few weeks ago County Executive Barbara “The Whiner” Fiala released her 2008 proposed budget. In her address to the County Legislature, she found it necessary to blame just about everyone else for an increase in the property tax rate. First of all, it’s Jeff Kraham’s fault–the man who held the position prior to Fiala–two years ago. How it can be his fault two years later is somewhat of a mystery, but that’s the claim. It’s also the fault of local municipalities because they aren’t controlling costs and are not consolidating quickly enough. Oh, and it’s the fault of that big bad sheriff–David Harder. He’s just spending too much on overtime <cough>because Fiala won’t give him more people<cough>. I guess we should just let the bad people take over–much easier, right? And the real jewel…somehow the state-mandated elephant’s share of the budget, which is for Medicaid, is Dan Schofield’s fault. He’s the minority leader of the County Legislature. Yup, it’s everyone else’s fault except Ms. Fiala, who refuses to exhibit LEADERSHIP. How about making some tough choices Ms. Fiala? How about challenging New York State’s socialist edicts about funding people’s medical care who won’t do it for themselves? How about making Broome County a “welfare-free” zone? How about quit blaming everyone else and figure out how YOU can do something about it? All I hear are excuses and whining.

On to the budget analysis. I don’t pretend to be an accountant and understand the very complicated 571-page document that is the 2008 Proposed Budget. Perhaps there are some accountants out there who can chime in and enlighten us. Here’s my rather basic understanding (feel free to correct me):

First, here’s where we’ll spend $328,881,986 in 2008 (yes, that’s 328 MILLION dollars):

The above does not tell the whole story. Some of the items, like Central Food, the County Library, Golf and the Arena will actually bring in money. That is, we not only pay out, but the “asset” will generate revenue that comes back in. So some of those items will in essence be “self funding.” Also, many of the items above are funded by sales tax revenue and revenue from New York State. Yes! I know…that’s also money from our pockets too. But for the sake of argument, let’s save that discussion for another day. Assuming that many of the items above are “funded” by other sources, here is what we are left having to pay out of our collective pockets using property taxes:

And if you were to break it down by how much of each $1 of the property tax you pay goes to fund the above, it breaks down like this:

*due to rounding it adds up to 99 cents

You can see that 80 cents of each dollar is used to fund Social Services. That includes Medicaid, foster care, and a host of social programs. The lion’s share is Medicaid–approximately $34 million in the 2008 budget. Folks, this is nuts. This is socialism run amok. Our government, both New York State and Broome County, points the gun of the state at our heads and forces us to open our pockets and pay for our neighbors. It is immoral and it is unfair. We need local leadership that will challenge New York State and think creatively about reducing the budget.

How about this for a simple but effective strategy: Don’t raise the budget for the next five years. Cap it where it is and figure out how to keep reducing line items year by year. The cost of living will go up, state mandates will increase, etc. So what!? Figure it out. Cap it and start, little by little, living on LESS. Become known as the one county in New York State where it’s actually costing LESS in property taxes to live. And watch this area start to attract more people, new jobs and new businesses.

Agree or disagree? Have a question? Want to vent? Leave a message in the comments below.

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