NEW CITY – Rockland County taxpayers could face as much as a 20 percent increase in property taxes in 2016 and that is unacceptable to County Executive Edwin Day.
The county executive said that while the county must make a $17.5 million “sins of the past” balloon payment, there will unfortunately be layoffs to lower the tax hike. He said the good news is this should be the last round of layoffs the county will face.
“We will be having layoffs the way it looks low because of realities,” Day said. “We are divesting ourselves of Summit Park, the nursing home and hospital. There are jobs that have been essentially attached to that facility, so with the facility leaving there will unfortunately be layoffs also that go along with that beyond the people who work directly for the facility.”
Day merged some county departments for better efficiency and economy and he expects to merge others next year.
