Molinaro: “Think Different Dutchess County”
POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County is experiencing “modest”
economic groqth, 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. Property taxes would drop slightly for a third year.
“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 or the elderly, who may get lost.
