Our Monthly Report From County Executive Steve McLaughlin
Greetings to friends and neighbors in Eastern Rensselaer County. This column is presented to give residents up to date information and a better understanding of issues being dealt with in county government. We hope the fall is going well for everyone.
Fall brings the introduction of the county budget. I am proud that as County Executive my first two budgets for fiscal years 2019 and 2020 included slight tax decreases while protecting needed services and the county’s strong financial ratings. I am equally proud the 2021 budget as introduced again includes a slight tax decrease and protects needed services, while carefully and reasonably reducing spending.
Our commitment to saving taxpayer dollars goes year-round and helped provide a solid foundation for the 2021 budget. In October, we announced savings of $1.5 million in personnel costs, following similar savings in 2019 and 2018. In August, the county achieved a savings of $3 million by refinancing bonds for previously issued county debt. The county’s strong financial position helped generate a bigger savings than expected.
The 2021 budget proposal does help maintain services our seniors, veterans and youths rely on, along with providing resources to allow for the paving and improvement of county roads. The budget also includes resources for contact tracing and other services related to our response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
A quality network of county roads is important to residents and businesses throughout the county. We are pleased that our county Highway team and our partners with paving companies in the area paved over 40 miles of roads during 2020. We will be announcing the total amount of miles paved in the coming days when some final projects are completed.
Included in the projects were a shared services effort between Rensselaer and the county to improve busy roads like Babcock Lake Road in Grafton, McChesney Avenue in Brunswick, Buskirk-West Hoosick Road, Indian Massacre Road and Toad Point Road and many others.
The annual Coats for Kids effort has provided warm coats for kids across the county for decades. Funds for the donation of the coats largely comes from a golf tournament, with this year’s tournament on September 15 the most successful. Thanks to all who supported the tournament to help us obtain over 900 coats to distribute to kids this fall and winter.
Thanks for reading. If you have questions, or would like to get in contact with us, you can call the County Executive’s office at 518-270-2900, or visit the county website at www.rensco.com, where there are links for questions and contact.Re