MAYVILLE - The roughly $112,000 which the Human Services Committee voted Thursday to add into the 2010 budget would have affected three departments - public health, probation and the Office of the Aging.
On Friday, the Audit and Control Committee voted down the three proposed amendments. Those amendments, however, may be brought up again by any legislator during discussion on the budget later this month.
Rudy Mueller, D-Lakewood, proposed the three amendments, with Vicki James, D-Jamestown, and David Kleparek, D-Fredonia, supporting all three. Ron Lemon, R-Frewsburg, objected to the public health and probation additions, but voted in favor of the addition to the Office of the Aging's budget.
In the public health line, Mueller proposed adding a part-time educator to increase education about abstinence programs. According to Mueller, the $25,000 position will be partially funded by the state - with the county picking up two-thirds of the cost.
For probation, Mueller proposed adding an additional probation officer into the budget.
"We're going to have a huge, heavy load on the probation department," Mueller said of the coming year. "We did get a request of two positions. I'm suggesting that we fund one position at $67,000."
In the Office of the Aging's budget line, Mueller proposed adding $30,000 for home care services. According to Mueller, such services prevent and delay the elderly from being placed in nursing homes - which he said is one of the largest factors for driving up the county's Medicaid costs. Additionally, Mueller said the county would only have to fund 90 percent of that $30,000 cost.
Of his objections, Lemon said he believed the public health amendment benefits specific zip codes and not necessarily the entire county. In terms of probation, Lemon said he believes the department will continue to do an efficient job for the taxpayers of Chautauqua County with the budget which was submitted.
"The taxpayers of the county have asked us to cut spending, that means that we need to work smarter and continue to be disciplined in our budgeting of funds," Lemon said. "I believe that these departments have done this and will continue to do so. My opposition is in no way, shape or form a knock on the fine job that each of these departments are doing. With the continued oppression of New York state mandates, it remains a daunting task to create a budget that lowers property taxes in our county. I am committed to working with the county executive and other legislators in a bi-partisan way to reduce them."
On supporting the funding for the Office of the Aging, Lemon said he could not oppose something which would benefit the seniors of Chautauqua County.
"I believe that each of these programs have done a fine job with their budget proposals," Lemon said, "but based on the superior budgeting and cost-cutting job that the Office of the Aging has done, I felt that it would be a good investment for the taxpayers to support the additional $30,000 that Legislator Mueller proposed."
LAKE FUNDING
Mueller is still concerned about Chautauqua Lake.
Even with the recent legislature action to restrict the use of phosphorus-containing fertilizers, Mueller said more can be done.
"We've cut the funding of the lake significantly in this budget compared to last year's and I think we need to do something for the farmers," Mueller told the Audit and Control Committee on Thursday. "The soil and water budget over the many years, due to inflation, has been significantly cut."
To implement the coming watershed management plan and its recommendations, which the Chautauqua Lake Management Commission is currently completing, funding will be necessary. Mueller said the county will likely need to address runoff as another source of phosphates as well as educating farmers about best practices.
With close to a quarter of Chautauqua County's taxes being paid by the small percentage of people who live around Chautauqua Lake, Mueller said steps must be taken to preserve the lake as it is the county's economic driver.
"We need to do these things to improve the condition of the lakes to keep the property values around the lakes up and keep people from outside considering to move in, visit or vacation and spend money here," Mueller said. "And that will lower the property taxes of people who live out away from the lake, including farmers."
Though amendments to increase such funding did not make it out of committee and into the budget, Mueller said legislators can expect amendments on the floor of the legislature during budget consideration later this month.
DRUG TASK FORCE
An amendment to the sheriff's budget was proposed Wednesday by Legislature Chairman Keith Ahlstrom, D-Dunkirk, on behalf of Kleparek.
Totaling $100,000, the additional money would help the village of Fredonia and the cities of Dunkirk and Jamestown pay for their officers on the Southern Tier Regional Drug Task Force.
Following the final committee's review of the budget Thursday, Fred Croscut, R-Sherman, addressed the Audit and Control Committee on the amendment during its post-review meeting.
A member of the sheriff's mounted division, Croscut explained that he is close to the sheriff's department. Having worked closely with both deputies and the sheriff, Croscut said he would like the committee to realize the department does civil work and jail work as well as road patrol work.
"That's all wrapped into that budget," Croscut said. "One of the things that was asked was to possibly fund the drug task force out of this year's budget, and you can never blame anyone for asking for that. I respect Mr. Kleparek for bring it up, but there are a number of points and there are a couple of things maybe we need to look cat if we are going to fund that."
Specifically, Croscut cited the fact that the sheriff is waiting on word about a grant which would fund up to 50 percent of the entire drug task force. As such, Croscut suggested that if the amendment makes it into the budget, it should be written with a sunset clause built into it.
In public policy, a sunset provision or sunset clause is a provision in a statute or regulation that terminates or repeals all or portions of the law after a specific date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend it. Most laws do not have sunset clauses. In such cases, the law goes on indefinitely.
"If we did decide to put the money into this, then we would definitely have that stipulation where if this reimbursement in the form of a grant came back, we could be reimbursed for the expense that we set aside to do this drug task force," Croscut said.
Croscut went on to suggest that the Village of Fredonia and the sheriff's office should sit down to discuss services in the village.
The next meeting of the Chautauqua County Legislature is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28 in the Gerace Office Building in Mayville.
