Fiscal Challenges and Ways to Address Them

County executives from across the state convened in Albany today for the annual business meeting of the New York State County Executives Association.The executives talked about the need to make dramatic structural differences in order to realign the state’s programs and services delivered at the county level—a system that has driven New York’s property taxes to be among the highest in the nation, according to Orange County Executive Ed Diana, president of the County Executives Association.The county executives voiced concern with the potential that state payment for local programs and services are delayed by the Governor in order to keep the state from running out of cash. The areas that would be affected by delayed payment include public health, mental health, social programs, transportation projects and public safety.“Most of our counties do not have the reserves to absorb delayed or denied state reimbursement. In some cases they would have to borrow for short term to keep their budgets balanced for the remainder of the fiscal year,” said Diana.