This morning Chemung County Executive Chris Moss released a copy of his proposed budget for 2020.
The Chemung County Legislature will hold its first budget workshop tonight (November 12th) immediately following the Legislature’s November meeting.
A copy of the proposed budget is embedded at the end of this post. If you have any questions or concerns you would like me to attempt to answer or raise in our workshops, please leave a comment to this post or on Facebook, or send an email to csonsire@chemungcountyny.gov.
In a blog post published in this forum on November 6th, I shared the Library District’s 2019 budget. It is embedded again below for your review.
Today Chemung County Executive Moss sent information to the Legislature that shows the county provides a small amount of in-kind services to the Library District, something it has done since the Library District was created in 2005.
This morning County Executive Chris Moss gave a presentation to local government officials, business leaders and the media highlighting certain aspects of his proposed 2020 budget. Moss’ presentation kicked off the budget season in Chemung County, an important undertaking that is particularly critical this year as Moss and almost half of the legislators are in their initial year of service and will be going through this process for the first time.
Overview of the Budget Process
Under Chemung County’s charter, the county executive is required to furnish the legislature with a copy of the proposed budget each year by November 10th. The charter requires the legislature to send a report back to the county executive with its findings, questions and/or recommendations no later than November 25th. Throughout that time the legislature typically holds several budget workshops in order to work through the document. With a budget of estimated to be around $200 million dollars this year, the legislature needs as much time as possible to do its due diligence to both county government and the community at large.
Over the past few decades a tradition developed whereby legislators were provided copies of the proposed budget on the Thursday after Election Day, even if that date was well before November 10th, in order to give legislators time to analyze and understand the budget before the workshops begin.
At the conclusion of the Chemung County Legislature’s Budget Committee meeting on Monday, Legislator Joe Brennan raised concern over programming at the Steele Memorial Library in Elmira. Specifically, Brennan urged the Legislature to take action against the Chemung County Library District because it periodically hosts “Drag Queen Story Time.”
The video below is from Monday’s meeting, and the image is from the of Legislator Joe Brennan’s official Facebook page:
As evidenced by my expression and comments at the meeting, I was shocked for several reasons.
The Chemung County Legislature passed four important resolutions when it met on October 16, 2019. Notably, all four of these resolutions were initiated by the Legislature, a healthy step toward making this branch a more proactive partner in local government.
Cold War Veterans Exemption
New York State allows veterans of the Cold War to receive certain property tax exemptions if the county in which the veteran lives passes a local law allowing him or her to take advantage of it.
Chemung County adopted a Local Law in 2001 to provide certain property tax exemptions to veterans who served in “wartime” defined as World War I, World War II, the Korean War (1950-1955), the Vietnam War (1961-1975) and the Gulf War (1990-present). However, this law did not provide the exemptions to veterans who served during the Cold War (1945-1991) but whose service fell outside these designated “wartimes”.
The local law unanimously passed by the Legislature last night seeks to rectify this inequity. It allows veterans living in Chemung County who served during the Cold War to receive certain property exemptions regardless of when their military service took place so long as it was entirely outside of a “wartime” described above.
Legislative Vice Chairperson John Burin wrote a memorandum explaining the background of the Cold War Exemption along with a detailed fiscal analysis found here and embedded below:
Late in the day on Monday, September 30, 2019, Judge Eugene Faughnan, a 6th Judicial District Supreme Court Judge from Binghamton, issued a 19 page decision in which he dismissed both lawsuits filed by County Executive Moss and County Attorney Hyder Hussain against the Chemung County Legislature, the Legislators individually, and Legislative Attorney Bryan Maggs.
A full copy of the decision can be accessed here and is also embedded below:
The Chemung County Legislature has been advised that major infrastructure upgrades – totaling anywhere from $80 to $100 million dollars – are necessary to provide basic maintenance to our Sewer Districts’ facilities and bring them into compliance with pollution reduction targets set by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that will take effect in 2025.
The purpose of this post is to present background information and begin a public discussion on what may turn out to be one of the most significant undertakings the Legislature and County Executive will face this term. I will do my best to publish updated information as it becomes available.
Chemung County Sewer Districts
According to the county website, found here, approximately 80% of the 35,000 households and over 90% of all businesses in Chemung County are served by the Chemung County Sewer Districts. Jointly, they process approximately 18 million gallons of wastewater per day in order to meet current state and federal discharge requirements.
On August 6th the City-County Committee presented its report and recommendations to a large crowd at Mandeville Hall.
Fresh off the excitement from last night’s event, I wrote a Facebook post just after waking up this morning:
However, while writing this blog post I learned by letter that County Executive Moss has abruptly terminated the Committee. I will address this issue at the end of the post so that it does not interfere with the important, substantive work the Committee has done over the past six months.
On February 11, 2019, the Chemung County
Legislature unanimously passed a resolution allowing Chemung County Executive
Christopher Moss to form a temporary committee to identify ways the county and
city can work together to assist the city with studying possible cost-saving
measures that could improve the city’s financial health and benefit the
community.
The committee is comprised of
eight individuals: Chemung County Legislature Vice Chairperson John Burin;
Elmira Mayor Daniel Mandell; Chemung County Legislators Martin Chalk, Christina
Sonsire, Scott Drake and William McCarthy; Elmira City Councilperson Joseph
Duffy; and former City of Elmira Chamberlain David Vandermark.
The committee has spent the past
five months examining and analyzing the city’s current fiscal situation and has
identified several potential cost-saving measures and ideas. This letter and
the accompanying report set forth our findings.
The Chemung County Legislature’s ad hoc Compensation & Benefits Committee held its initial meeting last night. The Committee is comprised of five legislators including John Pastrick, Mike Smith, Rodney Strange, Bill McCarthy and myself. Together we are charged with evaluating the salary and benefit package offered to legislators and recommending what changes, if any, should be made.
Resolution 18-640 was passed last December designating the salary and benefits offered to Chemung County Legislators this year.
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