If
you know anything at all about MonroeCounty, you know
that we’re in trouble.

Sure,
there are positive stories here, just like anywhere else. But if current trends
continue, we’ll soon be unable to pay for the government we have.

Even
a mostly upbeat speech from Maggie Brooks can’t change that.

So
while it’s not surprising that Brooks’ State of the County address made a
positive statement, it leaves as many questions as answers.

Brooks
announced the creation of The Enterprise Institute, a program to connect
aspiring entrepreneurs with venture capitalists to grow local high-tech jobs.
Seed money for the project’s first three years will come from the County of
Monroe Industrial Development Agency. Though it’s not what COMIDA usually does,
the agency’s Executive Director Terry Slaybaugh says
“I think the way Industrial Development Agencies are defined under state law, it’s clearly within our scope.” He expects the program
to cost between $100,000 and $150,000 per year, and address what he describes
as the “biggest problem” for would-be businesses locally: a lack of start-up
capital.

The
sections of the speech focusing on COMIDA’s
day-to-day operations were positively glowing: total number of projects, up 20
percent; investment, up 173 percent; and something she called “projected job
creation,” up 319 percent. Overall, that means more than 4,000 new jobs and
13,600 retained, she said. But companies applying for COMIDA benefits don’t
necessarily have to meet their projections to keep getting aid.

And what about Brooks’ claim that we lead the Buffalo
and Syracuse
metro areas in job growth? She was citing US Department of Labor
stats, but New York’s Labor
Department found something different. Just two days after her speech those
findings were plastered across the front of the D&C: 17,100 jobs gone from the area in the last five years.
Last year, Rochester had the worst
job-creation record of any metro area in the state except Elmira.

How
can Brooks’ administration explain the huge discrepancy between her stats and
the state Labor Department’s?

“We don’t feel they’re accurate, the way they
collect them,” says Slaybaugh of the state’s stats. New York bases
employment statistics on unemployment, while the feds rely on census data, he
says.

To Brooks’
credit,
she’s been straightforward about the county’s looming budget problems (a
deficit of over $100 million within two years). Yet her speech was notable only
for its repetition of previous themes (that Medicaid’s the biggest expense) and
its paucity of new solutions.

That’s
apparently because the ideas are still on the way: “I will propose a strategy
to fix our long-term financial challenges,” she said, “and because the stakes
are so high I will present my plan within the next 90 days.”

Opposing
politicians say that’s an improvement over getting a budget shortly before it
needs to be adopted. But the secrecy surrounding the Brooks team’s own budget
brainstorming is puzzling.

And
her speech didn’t address media reports that her administration is again
considering refinancing our tobacco settlement for fiscal salvation. Nor did
she mention the Center for Civic Entrepreneurship, the group that’s making
budget recommendations behind closed doors. The D&C is suing to obtain records of the group’s meetings. Friday
brought word that Brooks’ administration is seeking to have the lawsuit thrown
out of court on a technicality.

Perhaps
criticism about this secrecy is part of the reason Brooks is now trying to
bring the public into the process. In a press conference on Monday, she called
for a February public budget workshop with the full legislature (including
Democrats, who’ve complained about being left out of important discussions in
the past). She also established an address, hotline, and email address to
solicit citizen input on the budget challenge.

Even
opposition leaders conceded that they liked parts of Brooks’ State of the County speech.

CountyLegislature Minority
Leader Carla Palumbo lauded Brooks’ focus on rooting out Medicaid provider
fraud, saying that’s where the real abuse occurs.

And
Brooks’ announcement that MonroeCommunityHospital would remain
open and county-owned, prompted loud and long applause from the audience (and
again from the Democrats gathered afterwards to criticize the speech). The
hospital — which loses $4-6 million a year — houses patients who would
often have no other place to turn for treatment.

Yet
even that news raises at least an eyebrow or two. Brooks said she’ll “create
and appoint a permanent Financial Review Board for MonroeCommunityHospital that will
recommend cost-savings and operational efficiencies on an on-going basis.” Does
that mean we weren’t already looking for these things?

Brooks’
Medicaid Czar (and former budget director) Bill Carpenter says some
cost-savings were recommended but if more weren’t, it’s largely because the
institution’s future has been up in the air. It’s premature to guess how much
savings the review board can find.

“There’ll be ways to save money that don’t
have any impact on service,” he says, and other ways that may impact service.

For
now, it seems the answers to many questions — if we
get answers — will come in three months, when Brooks releases her long-term
budget plan. We can’t wait.

Think
you’ve got a really great idea for how to solve the county’s budget problems?
It’s probably that extra martini you allowed yourself last night. Still
convinced? Call 585.753.1035, email citizenbudgetinitiative@monroecounty.gov,
or snail-mail it to Citizen Budget
Initiative, PO
Box 14001Rochester, N.Y.14614.

This article appears in Jan 25-31, 2006.