Rockland County, N.Y. Budget Includes 16.7% Deficit

The county executive for what has been called New York’s most fiscally stressed government, Rockland County, is proposing a budget with at 16.7% deficit.

In September New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli named Rockland County as the most stressed government on his list of roughly 1,000 New York governments. Rockland County is rated BBB-minus by Standard & Poor’s and Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service.

On Wednesday county executive C. Scott Vanderhoef proposed an operating budget that would be 1.8% smaller than the budget found in the current year. The county’s fiscal year corresponds with the calendar year. The $760.9 million operating budget includes a 9.9% increase in property taxes.

Vanderhoef proposed smaller increases to the county’s other sources of revenues.

The proposal includes a $127 million deficit, as traditionally defined, said Rockland County’s commissioner of finance, Steven DeGroat. The county anticipates New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s approval of the county issuing $96 million in bond anticipation notes in 2014. The county plans to cover the balance of $31 million through the sale of a nursing home and/or hospital and/or land next to the hospital that it owns, he said.

“We have received no indication that Gov. Cuomo will disapprove the Rockland County Deficit Financing Act,” Vanderhoef said. “The act has passed both houses of the state legislature and has the full backing of Rockland’s state representatives.”

If Cuomo does not approve the act, the county would have to pass either additional property tax increases or spending cuts, Vanderhoef said.

The county currently is losing money on a nursing home it owns. It plans to sell it next year, DeGroat said. The county has budgeted to cover losses through the entire year.

The private sector may be interested in buying the nursing home because they may be able to make a profit on it, DeGroat said. It is losing money because of the government-level wage and benefit contracts the employees have, he said.

Without the nursing home and hospital losses, the county would have a small surplus this year, DeGroat said.

Vanderhoef’s proposed capital budget for the county, which has about 317,000 residents, anticipates $14.9 million in capital projects, when sewer projects are included. The county plans to sell bonds to cover these projects, DeGroat said.

By the end of this year the county anticipates $264 million in general fund bonds outstanding and $143 million in sewer fund bonds outstanding. Including $30.6 million in bond anticipation notes outstanding, the county will have a total capital indebtedness of $438 million on Dec. 31.

In 2013 the county anticipates making $33.8 million in debt service payments.

Standard & Poor’s raised its outlook on the county to stable from negative in September.

Rockland County’s legislature will have to pass the executive’s proposed budget for it to be adopted.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
New York
MORE FROM BOND BUYER