GOSHEN – The 2016 Orange
County budget of $725 million was adopted by a majority of the county
legislature on Thursday. The spending plan came in $7 million under last
year’s.
Despite coming in under the state tax cap, Republican Legislature Chairman
Stephen Brescia said the county will have to maintain its belt-tightening
efforts going forward.
“We are going to have to watch everything with a microscope. We
are just going to have to not grow county government like it used to be.
We will have to do more with less,” he said.
Democratic Minority Leader Christopher Eachus scrutinized the budget
with a fine tooth comb, proposing the elimination of $250,000 worth of
funding for the tourism department and the hiring of a human rights executive
director.
Instead, he said some of the money could be used to hire part-time employees
in the county clerk’s office to help alleviate a document processing
backlog.
