Molinaro: “maintain the county’s strong fiscal position”
POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County is experiencing “modest”
economic growth, County Executive Marcus Molino said late Thursday afternoon.
His assessment came during a more than one hour presentation of his 2017
county budget proposal to the county legislature.
Molinaro’s $467 million spending plan reflects a two-tenths of one
percent increase over this year while addressing a number of programs,
including several new ones.
“This budget maintains the county’s strong fiscal position,
all the same time increasing our target investment in tourism, arts, agriculture
and economic growth,” he said. “We seek to be a safer community,
one where we continue to reform our criminal justice system, enhance our
reentry programming to reduce recidivism, and assist individuals to live
independent lives. We seek to improve our law enforcement system through
improved training and coordination among law enforcement agencies.”
The county executive’s budget includes additional funding for tourism
promotion, economic development, expanded public transit from six to seven
days per week, farmland protection funds, rebranding the Dutchess County
Airport as Hudson Valley Regional Airport and creating an Aviation Maintenance
Education Center at Dutchess Community College at a cost of $8 million
to be shared by the county, college and state Dormitory Authority.
Molinaro also would like to see more sharing among law enforcement agencies,
add two assistant district attorneys and allocate $2.1 million toward
fighting domestic violence and sexual assault.
He would also like to expand his “Think Different Dutchess County”
to focus efforts on people with special needs including a “Project
Safe Return” funded by $50,000 for GPS tracking of persons with
special needs of the elderly, who may get lost.
