TAXES
Maggie
Brooks and Bill Johnson have diametrically opposed views on this issue. Johnson
says although property-tax increases would be a “last resort,” he can’t rule
them out because economic growth won’t happen fast enough to solve the county’s
financial problems. Freezing the property tax levy — the amount the county
takes in — as the Doyle administration has done over the last seven years,
has cost the county millions of dollars and has actually translated into a tax
cut, Johnson says, as property values have risen. Keeping the property tax rate
flat — which would still allow the county to collect more in taxes as
property values increased — would have generated $94 million over the last
seven years, he says.
Bill Johnson: The current
administration is determined to leave office with its books balanced. Jack
Doyle would never want it said that he left office with the county in the red.
So all of his energies are being devoted toward this short-term objective,
which means he’s leaving very little wiggle room for his successor. And so they
haven’t fixed the structural deficit. And there’s a humungous bill coming on
the pension payments.
           There is no conceivable way this can
be cured by waiting for an economic upturn, as Maggie says, by generating some
economic recovery. The twin parts of my agenda are to examine issues of
consolidation as a way of cost saving, of reducing redundancy, to free up money
that can be used to address the structural deficits, and a willingness to
consider tax increases as a last resort.
           I can’t say, “We’re going to squeeze
the fat out of the government.” That view presumes that there’s not a lot the
government ought to be doing. This crowd from Washington through Albany and
into Monroe County has shown that they place a low premium on some of these
services. But there’s another group of people who understand their government
services are very, very valuable, and they aren’t free.
           People say, “Well, he raised taxes
in the city 38 percent.” But look what we’ve done with them. We’re putting them
back, investing them back in the community, and the community understands. And
they have never been oppressive, huge tax increases.
ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
Johnson
says one key to economic growth is better collaboration and less competition
among the county’s municipalities. He has called for a non-competitive
agreement, and says the region must find a way to act as one in attracting new
business and industry.
           Johnson wants to expand the Council
of Governments — which brings together county and town leaders — into a
Finger Lakes Council that would include Genesee, Livingston, Ontario, Orleans,
Steuben, and Wayne counties.
           Monroe County should coordinate its
economic development efforts with Greater Rochester Enterprise — an
independent, regional economic development group — to market the community as
a whole, instead of different factions competing against each other, he says.
Johnson: I’ve seized on
this situation of Kohl’s coming into this market and negotiating with four
different municipalities, clearly finding out where they can get the best deal.
This is a classic example of where county focus could come.
           We made this huge investment in
Irondequoit Mall, and it is suffering grievously. That ought to be a matter of
some priority. Rather than building a brand new mall somewhere, turning more
green space to asphalt, why not try to determine what set of strategies could
be brought to bear?
           Right now, each town is left to its
own devices. They’re out for growth, and everything is fair game. To the same
extent, there’s a lot of commercial activity that is also on the table that GRE
should be the focal point for.
           I believe the county should have an
economic development staff, the city should have an economic development staff
— because there are going to be micro activities that are not going to be of
any interest or concern to GRE. But the county and city agencies also need to
be at the table with GRE. I just think that kind of roundtable is a permanent
place where people are coming on a very regular basis.
           Shortly after GRE was established,
the county created the Monroe County Development Corporation. Some people see
them as competing directly with GRE. We need to really consolidate those
efforts.
CONSOLIDATION
This
is the most controversial and misunderstood issue of the campaign. Johnson says
he does not have a specific consolidation plan, and he won’t outline specific
areas he would look at. A proponent of regional solutions to lower the cost of
government, Johnson says he personally favors studying the merger of city and
county governments, but notes that voters, not the county executive, have the
power to bring that about. He says he does not want to eliminate town or
village governments. Likewise, he says he does not want to, nor could he
without a change in state law, consolidate city and suburban school districts.
           County officials frequently suggest
that the city’s water authority be consolidated into the county’s, but Johnson
says the city water system generates revenue for the city, and the county has
never offered a fair price for it.
Johnson: Bill Johnson
doesn’t have any consolidation plan. I’m saying that we have to look at that as
an option. If you accept that what’s driving your high tax bill is government,
and that here we’ve developed government into a fine art, we’ve got so many
levels and units of government, then perhaps there is a more efficient way to
provide the same caliber and quantity of service. There are a lot of small
units of government trying to do the same thing.
           Look at some of the things people
fought hard to prevent, like the emergency response systems that we now call
911. Everybody wanted to dispatch their own fire, police, and ambulance. People
finally realized how inefficient that was. They came together and created a
system that people don’t even think twice about.
           Take insurance costs. Take fire. Do
you all need the same kind of equipment in your arsenal if you’re sitting two
or three miles apart? Can you come up with a method of sharing?
           It’s going to be gradual. It can’t
be too slow, but it’s really going to be getting people to a comfort level
where they can embrace this whole concept.
           [Regarding government or
school-district consolidations] They have three protections built in. First, if
there’s any change in governance, it has to be approved by the local
government. It has to go to Albany to be approved; then it’s got to come back
and be ratified by the people. Do you think the County Legislature controlled
by 16 Republicans is going to vote to send a bill that I submit to eliminate
the school district? Absolutely not. And it’s still got to come back to the
people, and every affected district’s got to approve it. Any one has veto
power.
           We’ve never been adamantly
opposed to a merging of the water authorities. There are strong points on both
sides of the issue. We’ve never been offered fair value for that system. The
city water authority generates, for lack of a better word, a profit, and it goes
right to the bottom line. Without the revenue from the water authority, we
would have another 3 or 4 percentage points on our property tax bill every
year. All I’m saying is, I can’t give it away.
SOCIAL
SERVICES
County
Executive Jack Doyle is claiming $30 million in savings from “Operation
Transform,” a reorganization of the way the county delivers social services.
County Democrats, union leaders, and others, including daycare providers, are
sharply critical of the project. They say it is hurting those who can least
afford it. And Democrats say the county has provided no proof of the savings.
The reorganization, Johnson says, isn’t working.
Johnson: The fact of
the matter is that the county operated on a premise that they could continue meeting
their legal mandates with reduced staffing. Not only did that not happen, they
cut the staff and the caseloads are going up. They’ve essentially de-stabilized
that operation. Workers move from one area to another. They don’t understand
the program that they’re trying to administer. On top of that, they are given
these unmanageable caseloads.
           The county can count on the fact
that the public doesn’t care. It’s social services. It’s poor people.
           People haven’t had the opportunity
to see some of the unintended consequences. I’ll give you a classic example:
the reduction for drug treatment programs. The county reduced the quantity as
well as the quality of care. The number of days a person could receive
treatment was reduced substantially, and the way in which the service was
delivered was reduced greatly: to 45 days inpatient, 15 days outpatient.
           I think reform is needed in any
institution. The part of the Altreya report that got completely overlooked was
that this county is technologically backwards. I can understand that. You’ve
got a choice here: You’ve got to pay for child care or buy a computer. But the
county, because its economic situation was graver than it wanted to
acknowledge, couldn’t even go to the public and say, “Hey, we need to make this
investment.”
           At one of the summer street
festivals, I talked to a lady who ran a home daycare. She said, “I can’t do it
anymore. I employed six people, and the county was four, five months paying
me.” These are small businesses. And we’re talking about how to get people off
of welfare.
           We’re looking at the tip of the
iceberg. I don’t think we should get away easy with proclaiming, “Oh, by the
way, we did what we said we were going to do” when you see the kind of chaos….
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2003.
