Posted on Saturday, 20th February 2010 by Admin

POUGHKEEPSIE — They were there to talk about how to function in the new, tighter economy, but you can’t do that without a little bit of grousing.

Plus it was really early.

And so the panelists Monday morning at the Pattern for Progress Hudson Valley Leadership Conversation at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel and Conference Center talked about how more of their citizens need Medicaid, food stamps and other social services, and how they were paying for it when tax revenues were dropping.

  • Foreclosure filings in Dutchess County in 2009 were up 35 percent compared with 2007.
  • Sales tax revenue was down about 10 percent in Putnam in 2009, compared with 2008.
  • Sullivan County has had recent increases in applications for Home Energy Assistance Program and food stamps, as well as in families needing temporary assistance.

    • The reasons? Obviously the recession, and also what many panelists called a state government that mandates services, such as Medicaid, then shifts the cost to local governments. Medicaid eats up about 70 percent of most local government budgets, they said.

    “State government has failed us,” Ulster County Executive Mike Hein said. “They haven’t failed us for a short period of time. They’ve failed us for a long period of time. When 70 percent of the budget is mandated, it’s very, very difficult. It leaves a very small space for innovation.”

    And it’s left counties scrambling for ways to save.

    “We’ve actually taken light bulbs out of the ceiling. We’ve taken away cell phones, cars, all to try to keep expenses down,” Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef said.

    But they also talked about what they were doing with the limited resources they have.

  • Orange County is looking at video visitation for inmates.
  • Ulster County has brought together a consortium of eight local banks to collectively lend money to small-business owners.

    • Still, the leaders said, local governments are going to have to face up to the new, more austere economic reality.

    The way forward?

    Re-examine every service. If it’s not necessary, cut it. Consolidate government operations where you can. Be lean. But most of all, do it together.

    “We know what the realities of the new decade are,” said Westchester Deputy County Executive Kevin Plunkett.

    “If we face them as a region, the solutions will be easier to achieve.”

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