Rockland executive says legislature adopted “smoke-and-mirrors” budget

NEW CITY – The 2017 budget adopted on Tuesday by the Rockland County Legislature “goes right back into its habit of smoke-and-mirrors financing that earned Rockland a $138 million deficit, County Executive Edwin Day said on Wednesday.
He said the spending plan “relies heavily on non-existent revenue” by counting on a $4.5 million sale of the Sain building for a second year in a row after blocking the transaction for an entire year; by “double counting $1 million of Social Services revenue; raising the estimated sales tax revenue projection by an additional $1.5 million, contrary to the assessment of the state comptroller.
Day said the budget also includes a “fictitious tax decrease, [which] will not occur if even one of the impossibly incorrect revenues do not pain out.” He said the amendments by the legislature could result in a six percent property tax increase next year.
The Republican county executive said he will review the Democratic legislature’s budget line-by-line “and make financially sound decisions for the taxpayer.”
Any vetoes made by Day would go back to the legislature for possible override.