POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County Executive Bill O’Neil presented his first and only county budget to the county legislature on Thursday afternoon. The $599.9 million spending plan includes a 10.6 percent property tax rate decrease. Minority Leader Yvette Valdés Smith and Randy Johnson from the City of Poughkeepsie were the only two Democrats who attended. The remaining six were not there.
O’Neil became county executive in January when Marcus Molinaro took his seat in Congress. O’Neil is a 25-year veteran of county government and took the position with no inclination to run for his own term in November.
In explaining the budget, O’Neil, a Republican, blamed rising costs on Democrats both at the national and state levels. He pointed to “Bidenomics” for the $32 trillion debt and attributed $43 million of the county spending on the one-party Democrat rule in Albany. “This year, New York State mandates to Dutchess County are increasing $16 million – including $6.2 million in costs for Medicaid, which brings our total Medicaid bill to more than $43 million for 2024.
The executive budget includes plans to raise the county’s 3.75 percent sales tax to 4 percent in June. He claims the increase will result in $8.4 million in sales tax revenue this year and $17.1 million annually going forward. His second proposal to raise taxes is by increasing the county’s hotel tax from four percent to five percent in what he says is “capitalizing on the strong visitor interest.. The tax increase he says, is estimated to bring in $4.8 million in revenue in 2024.
Minority Leader Valdés Smith denounced the tax increases. “I will not support a sales tax increase. Our residents cannot afford it. Proposing such an increase at a time when most residents are struggling to pay bills is incompetent and shameless,” she said.
*CORRECTION: The O’Neil administration says “The 2024 budget plan appropriates $20 million from fund balance and reserve funds, while saying it maintains a “healthy fund balance which is in line with the county policy of maintaining one-to-two months of operating expenses.” The original Mid-Hudson News story attributed the $20 million in reserves to tax increases included in the 2024 spending plan.
In a break from raising taxes, O’Neil’s budget calls for a “multi-faceted plan that includes eight new positions, including shelter director, case managers and program specialists” to help with the homelessness crisis. In furtherance of his homelessness solutions, the county executive is calling for the “creation of new affordable housing through the county’s Housing Trust Fund.”
The budget, according to O’Neil, “reduces the county property tax levy to $99.4 million, the lowest tax levy in 15 years.”
The legislature’s Budget & Finance Committee will begin reviewing the budget and possibly make adjustments during the upcoming meetings. The legislature’s public hearing on the budget will be held on December 4 and the 2024 budget will be adopted on December 7, 2023.
