NEW CITY – Rockland County
Executive Edwin Day Thursday unveiled his proposed county budget for next
year which includes the complete closure of the Summit Park Hospital and
Nursing Care Center.
His $723 million budget does not fall under the state’s tax cap,
which Day attributed to the derailment of the sale of the Summit Park
nursing home facilities because the prospective buyers pulled out of the
deal at the last moment.
In order to finance the operations of the county and keep the tax increase
to an average of $4 per month – that’s a 4.95 percent increase
– a total of 326 jobs will be eliminated.
The budget includes cutting all 13 security positions in the Department
of General Services and placing them under the jurisdiction of the sheriff.
The budget also includes the transfer of the existing medical services
and eight full-time positions from Summit Park Hospital to the sheriff’s
office. Included are 13 new positions to meet the requirements of the
state Department of Corrections. That move essentially builds a new unit
in the sheriff’s office, which will be fully funding.
As a result of the closure of Summit Park, Day is calling for the sale
of the Sain Building in New City to generate $4 million and transforming
the 10-story hospital and nursing home building for county office space.
Day expects “a good number of employees” to take advantage
of an early retirement incentive, which would save the county $2.5 million.
“This is a responsible fiscal plan that begins the historic redesign
of county operations,” said Day. “Our goal is to create an
affordable government. We’ve made the hard choices to set our county
on a path to prosperity.”
