NEW CITY – Rockland County has filed its second quarter report with the state comptroller and County Executive Edwin Day said the county is making “strong progress, … just three years after earning the shameful designation of most fiscally stressed in the state.”
Day said his administration has reduced the size of government while increasing efficiency; reduced the county budget this year by $35.3 million from the previous year; received three credit rating upgrades and two years of budget surplus; and reduced the $138 million deficit when he took office down to a projected $19 million.
The dark cloud hanging over county government is the failure to sell the Sain Building, which was projected to bring in over $4 million, and Day has placed the blame on that failed sale squarely on the county legislature.
“The legislature affirmed this budget themselves; they put this revenue in. It’s their responsibility to make sure it happens,” Day said. “Right now if we don’t stop it, there is a $1.2 million deficit that is completely unnecessary because if the Sain Building was sold to a willing buyer who is right now available, we would have a surplus of about $3 million.”
The county legislature claims Day did not follow through on the agreed upon process.
