County Government

Sales Tax Increase Flops for Saratoga; They Go for Property Tax Increase and Cuts

November 19, 2011 Budget

As expected, key members of the State Senate, told Saratoga County officials not to plan on a local sales tax increase (which requires permission from the State Legislature and Governor), to balance the County budget. It was unlikely from the beginning. The State approved extensions of existing taxes during the current year, but approved no […]

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Don’t You Really Want to Reconsider? Big Mistake Averted at Least for the Time Being

November 17, 2011 County Government

Today, the Committee charged with reviewing applications for health facility construction projects for New York’s Public Health and Health Planning Committee took up Albany County’s certificate of need application to build a new nursing home. After considerable discussion and an emotional appeal by a patient’s family member and one County Legislator, the Committee voted to […]

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Another County Nursing Home is Being Sold

November 17, 2011 County Government

Thanks to an alert reader for pointing out that there’s another New York county nursing home on the agenda of New York’s Public Health & Health Planning Council. Unlike Albany’s, this one, in Fulton County, is being sold. We talked earlier here about the large number of counties seeking to offload their nursing homes (and […]

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Left Hand/Right Hand Continued #2. Perspective From Another Nursing Home

November 16, 2011 Budget

Heard from the Administrator of another nursing home (by reputation, a good facility) who pointed out that she runs a nursing home of about the same size as Albany County and … The projected deficit for a new Albany County Nursing Home is about the same size as their entire annual budget. It must be […]

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Left Hand/Right Hand Continued. Tying Several Issues Together

November 16, 2011 County Government

Am hearing from officials in other New York counties regarding the Albany County Nursing Home. Here’s a quote that ties together several important issues: The nursing home issue goes to the heart of the issue about mandate relief/bailouts for counties. Why should Albany County get the same relief that other counties are getting when they […]

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Left Hand, Meet Right Hand

November 15, 2011 Budget

It appears that this coming Thursday, New York State will bless the construction of a new Albany County Nursing Home. I wrote a bit about it a couple weeks ago when County Legislators began to talk privately about their hopes that the State would take them off the hook and disapprove the application. On the […]

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“Balanced” Budgets are Fine When You Have Plenty of Cash, but Balance May Not be Enough to Prevent a Crash

November 14, 2011 Budget

When I was a young Air Force pilot, one of the greybeards that I flew with counseled me that the most important job of an Aircraft Commander was “managing the margin of error.” Flying close to home, with less than a full load, or in good weather was much different from flying over the Pacific, […]

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Too Conservative for Their Own Good?

November 14, 2011 Budget

Good grief! Historically, Saratoga County, NY has been among the financially tightest in New York. When we wrote about Nassau County being consistently on the high side of spending per capita among New York’s county governments, we could also see that Saratoga was on the low side. In particular, you can see a graphic view […]

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Albany County & Orange County, NY Budgets and their County Nursing Homes

October 5, 2011 Budget

Those who know me, know that for several years as the Albany County, NY Commissioner of Management & Budget, I developed and pushed very hard for a strategy to expand home and community based long-term care services and to close the Albany County Nursing Home. I thought and still think that this direction made much […]

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