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Debt Service and Bonding Dominates County Legislature Meeting

Mike Kelsey — Tue, 22 May 2012 03:35:22 GMT

Oddly, the word “debt” has its origins in the Latin words debere (to owe) as well as de habere (to have) highlighting both sides of its doubled-edged sword. Following our April update on the county’s finances, in May we considered not only what we have, but what we owe. We did so alongside additional bond debt deliberations. On our agenda were two big bonds and three small bonds.

Outstanding debt on 12/31/11 was $110.7million of which in 2012 the county will pay $13.7million in principal payments (additionally in 2012 we’ll pay $4.1million in interest payments). To put this into perspective our outstanding indebtedness presently represents only 4% of the constitutional debt limit. The constitutional debt limit is set by the NYS Comptroller’s Office. Of 57 counties reporting in New York State, only 14 counties have a lower debt than Dutchess County.

Additionally there is presently $10million of authorized but unissued debt. These are bonds for which the Legislature has passed, but for which the County Executive has not yet authorized for them to go out to bid. Under our charter the Executive is the chief financial officer. We legislators must approve borrowing, but the actual decision-making on timing and need is left to the Executive’s discretion. Authorized and unissued amounts automatically self-repeal after ten years or sooner when the capital project is closed out.

On our agenda were several large bonds, most routine for public works projects, purchases and repairs. The first in the amount of $1,721,348 passed for highway and bridge improvements in accord with our capital plan.

The second large bond, in the amount of $1,998,000 is designed to purchase vehicles for various county departments. This bond received plenty of discussion, particularly because of the 62 cars to be purchased 51 of them are intended for the Sheriff’s Department. Replacing aging vehicles is obviously a priority particularly for those involved with emergency response. However this high number was controversial due to a labor issue that presented itself when in an attempt to balance last year’s budget the previous county executive ordered a fair number of deputy cars seized and sold. In the past compensation packages had been negotiated with certain officers to include driving police cars home, which last year when the cars had been seized resulted in lower compensated officers. The previous County Executive viewed driving police vehicles home at the end of the shift as an unnecessary drain on county finances as duplicative cars were then needed for the next shift. Instead he desired the same cars be used among several officers on varying shifts. Legislators weighed the issues, and eventually voted to replace these seized vehicles by passing this bond in its entirety.

The three small bonds include $262,000 to pay for building repairs at the Sheriff’s Office and Mass Transit Building, $319,500 for buses, and $225,000 for a roof replacement at Dutchess Community College. Discussion on these projects largely focused on the criteria for bonding as some projects seem better suited for payment out of the operating budget as opposed to borrowing for them. It was noted by this legislator that many of our towns in an effort to keep taxes low make decisions more in tune with what they can afford, thereby putting off projects or purchases to healthier times. Although all three bonds passed, I voted no on the DCC bond to make the statement that in this time of financial uncertainty that many property owners are putting off repairs and purchases in an effort to tighten their belts. Government should be doing the same.

A fourth small bond to purchase printers and highway equipment generated much discussion. Its vote was put off until our June meeting.

Michael N. Kelsey represents the people of the towns of Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

Bleak Numbers Cast Shadows Over County Finances

Mike Kelsey — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:35:15 GMT

County Legislators received an update on the County’s fiscal picture in late April from budget and finance personnel. It was bleak, as was to be expected. Afterall the 2012 budget when passed did not balance spending with revenues but instead borrowed extensively ($23million) from our reserve funds. This left the County at the end of 2011 with $7.8million in its fund balance, which is only 1.9 percent of the County’s $411million operating budget. Fund balance is the difference between County assets and liabilities and is not the same as cash. The ideal fund balance is between five and ten percent. Like the fund balance, the County’s cash flow is also much lower than in previous years. We finished 2011 with $29.5million. While cash flow fluctuates daily based on cash outlays and revenues received, cash balances has consistently been lower for the past three years.

The 2012 budget was balanced not only with an enormous reliance on fund balance, but by anticipating Medicaid Mandate Relief from the State. Such aid did not come. This creates a $1million shortfall for the County in 2012.

Instead the State chose to cap their reimbursement to the counties for Medicaid administrative costs, costing Dutchess County an estimated further $145,000. County financial leadership is estimating that the County faces a $40million budget gap for 2013.

Spending continues to rise. County spending in 2011 totaled $435.4million, which was an increase of $7.6million compared to 2010. This includes State-mandated expenses including $41.5million for Medicaid, $38.9million for employee health insurance and pension payments, $1million for preschool special education and early intervention programs (state mandated services all). It also includes $38.9million for the Sheriff and jail costs, and $12.7million in debt service to Dutchess Community College.

Revenues are down. While sales tax increased in 2011 by $1.8 million to $134.3million (largely due to the expiration of the sales tax exemption on clothing and footwear), the first quarter of 2012 showed a decrease of 1.4% compared to the first quarter of 2011.

Unfortunately the County’s fiscal trouble reflects financial distress of too many of its residents. Unemployment was at 7.7% in March. Department of Social Services caseloads are up 61% from five years ago. The County’s real property tax receivables have increased nearly $4.5million in one year. This final number indicates that more property owners are struggling to pay their taxes. We legislators must take note of this startling statistic. In 2010, 1,435 homeowners had their properties foreclosed due to inability to pay mortgages and/or taxes. While this number decreased in 2011 to 969, the underlying message of struggling taxpayers/property owners mustn’t be ignored.

In only a few months, county departments will start planning their budgets for the 2013 budget. This month we legislators continue scrutinizing bonding resolutions. Somehow we all must realize that business as usual can no longer be our mantra.

A Wassaic Slaughterhouse??? Future Use for Taconic DDSO Considered

Mike Kelsey — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:09:18 GMT

Among the most pressing economic issues discussed by attendees at a recent meeting of the Harlem Valley Chamber of Commerce was the future use of the Taconic DDSO grounds. Community members felt that something business-oriented should be attracted and that government leaders should assist in the conversation, particularly because the property is state-owned. To that end in recent times I have been carrying this topic forward in community conversations in asking local people what they would like to see. One idea that has surfaced is a Wassaic Slaughterhouse.

The property that housed Taconic DDSO is zoned for mixed use meaning it can be used for commercial or residential use, or both. A transit-oriented development that takes good advantage of the location’s proximity to the train station has in recent times been the proposed next use of the site. It may still be the way to go, but a region still recovering from the 1994 closure of the jobs-rich Harlem Valley Psychiatric Hospital seems desperate for ideas that will stimulate economic development, and help to again place Wassaic on the map. Perhaps a business park with light manufacturing, or warehousing can be assembled? Certainly there are advantages to the site including recent upgrades to the water system, central heating, access to current sewer systems and the ability to hook up to the electrical grid with an entire power station on site.

Perhaps one old idea is ripe for reconsideration, namely the development on site of a USDA-approved slaughterhouse. Such a concept was the topic of a 2000 feasibility study by the Hudson Valley Livestock Marketing Task Force.

Today, livestock producers face a shortage of slaughterhouses and must often travel great distances such that the current supply system does not meet present needs. The closest slaughterhouse is a small operation in Pine Plains, which serves a valuable part of the community but with a heavy demand. The greater meat market has to travel to Canaan, Schenectady, and Cooperstown or as far as Scranton, Penn. Not only is this less humane to the livestock, but the impact of transport increases the stress levels of the animals which translates into poorer quality meat production. A closer facility would allow local farmers to better brand their product creating a local niche with a higher demand that could mesh nicely with the region’s restaurant and grocery markets. Not to mention a nearby slaughterhouse can reduce transportation costs to farmers. This could very well lead to a dramatic expansion of farming in Dutchess County with likely new operations in the meat industry.

A mobile slaughterhouse now operates in the Hudson Valley in an attempt to meet farmers’ needs but reliance is arguably difficult due to the constant need for special use-permitting in each town that the mobile slaughterhouse services. The Taconic DDSO site could provide a central location for a permanent docking site for this mobile slaughterhouse, or perhaps a separate facility could be constructed to meet local need as was considered by the 2000 HVLMTF feasibility report. That report determined that it was financially feasible to justify a plant’s construction and that such a plant would return 100% of an estimated $100,000 in equity in its seventh year of operation. The same plan predicted in 2000 that as many as 1,937 beef animals could be available for a new facility to process, plus up to 2,198 hogs, 714 lambs and 100-200 other miscellaneous species animals.

Regardless of whether revived discussions of a community slaughterhouse or its siting at the Taconic DDSO grounds shall come to pass, community consensus is needed for some future use for the property.

Michael N. Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the Dutchess County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

County’s April Legislative Meeting Has Broad Scope

Mike Kelsey — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:26:11 GMT

Dutchess County government welcomed its newest legislator, David Sherman from Northeast, at its April meeting. Sherman was selected to succeed Legislator Gary Cooper who resigned to take a county job in the highway department. The meeting provided insight into various components of the function and roles played by county government.

The meeting included several presentations including a State of the Environment slideshow narrated by Washington resident and Environmental Management Council member, Vicki Kelly. Legislators were updated about the EMC’s education and advocacy efforts in such priority areas as climate control, recycling, invasive species, and air and water pollution.

The Medical Examiner updated legislators on development plans for the new facility that the Legislature bonded for last summer. We reviewed proposed equipment purchasing including autopsy tables, freezers and lifts, that now determined will permit construction to proceed.

The Public Works Department presented updates on highway projects in 2011 that included repaving on County Rt. 81 in Amenia and County House Road in Washington. 2012 projects for which legislators will vote on a bond in May will include bridgework, culverts and repaving on three roads in Amenia. In unrelated actions the Legislature voted to accept federal funding for other road projects including those damaged by hurricanes Irene and Lee. We also voted to move forward with the bridgeway over Route 55 in Lagrange that will complete the Dutchess County Rail Trail.

We voted to bond for two small projects: the first, $319,500 for the county’s share of buses for mass transit; the second, $225,000 for the county’s share to fix a roof at Dutchess Community College. I supported the first, but not the latter. I voted no on the college roof because I didn’t think the college met the burden of proving need and felt the county would be better served by preserving its funds in what will prove to be a tough budget year.

We were briefed by the County Budget Director on the 2013 budget process, which is about to get underway. Early projections suggest a $40-million budget gap. The 2012 budget was balanced using $23-million from fund balance, and state reforms to Medicaid and the state pension system won’t be felt on the county level until 2014 or later.

Prior to the meeting legislators heard updates on economic development projects including growing the local food and beverage industry by connecting farms with the Culinary Institute of America as well as the cafeterias of local hospitals and universities.

Board of Health president and Washington resident Dr. Bill Augerson made a presentation to the Health Care Access Partnership for promotion of community health. Presentations were also made to the County Critical Incident Response Team recognizing their ten-year commitment to responding to emergencies. We considered also requests from the Sheriff, District Attorney and County Attorney on various topics related to their respective departments.

All in all, April’s Legislative meeting was telling of the scope and breadth of the role performed by county government regardless of whether this was a legislator’s first meeting or his umpteenth.

Michael N. Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the Dutchess County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

County Tax Exemption for the Disabled Proposed as Just

Mike Kelsey — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 03:12:56 GMT

This column has recently been considering philosophical theory and contemporary practice regarding the issue of justice with respect to taxation practices. The impetus has been a county law I am sponsoring to grant tax exemption status to disabled property owners below certain incomes. Such an exemption works by granting a property tax discount to those who qualify, while expecting the rest of the community to make up the difference. In a day and age where class warfare is on the rise, and there is much voter angst being channeled against so-called “entitlements,” I have been looking to Aristotle’s ancient discourses on justice and the role of the State for justification. According to the Golden-Tongued Philosopher (as Cicero called him), legislators ought to decree the “justest laws” with justice defined in terms of “equality,” while also considering the advantage of the state and the common good of its citizens.

Clearly shielding members of our community who may have spent decades or more contributing to our sense of community but who have encountered a disability and on a limited income are now unable to pay serves the common good. We do the same for our seniors via STAR rebates, as we recognize it is to everyone’s advantage to retain our elder populations. The same is true for the courage and strengths of will for those who struggle with disabilities.

Only the underlying issue of fairness remained with respect to each paying their “fair” share. Aristotle again has insight. His definition of equality is “not for all, but only for equals.” By classification those designated as “disabled” are less than equal in power or ability, although certainly not in dignity. The injustice is not in over-charging the healthy to pay for the disabled, but in refusing to acknowledge the disabled’s inferiority to pay.

In practice the economics of taxation has sought to provide equalization relief to those “unequals” due to age, disability and wealth through use of tax exemptions. One means passed initially by New York State in 1998 (and modified in 2006) has been to provide a tax exemption to property owners below a certain economic threshold owing to the fact of a disability. Each taxing authority sets their own threshold amount based upon an allowable amount set by the State Legislature. Although 11 of the county’s 22 towns have already enacted such tax relief (including Washington and Stanford) and nine of the 16 school districts (including Millbrook and Pine Plains) hitherto Dutchess County as a whole had not done so.

I was approached by a Millbrook resident earlier in the year to advance a county-wide tax exemption. At present three residents of Washington and two in Stanford out of a total of 200 people in the county benefit from this exemption on a town or school-district basis. The local law I am advancing will also provide this benefit to county taxes. It is being introduced this month and will be voted on at our May meeting, and if passed will become available starting in 2013. Residents who qualify for the STAR exemption must choose one or the other, but not both exemptions. Those who qualify for veteran’s exemptions may take both.

Clearly this exemption is in keeping with Aristotle’s purpose for government: “The state is the union of families and villages having for an end a perfect and self-sufficing life, by which we mean a happy and honorable life.”

Michael N. Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

Caps and Exemptions: The Ever-Evolving Tax System

Mike Kelsey — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 01:44:22 GMT

A year ago the New York State Legislature shrewdly granted social acceptance to the concept of raising taxes and gave license to politicians statewide to annually do so absent the customary public outcry. Disguised as a property tax cap, state leaders marketed, passed, and then patted themselves on the back for giving school districts, county legislatures and town boards the freedom to annually raise taxes by reframing the debate. No longer is the question whether to increase, but by how much. In essence the property tax cap stipulates that taxes rise each year by two percent (3.3 percent in Dutchess) unless legislators crave more. Now so long as legislators keep it within the limit, they are portrayed as heroes, and the focus on the increase is lost.

The conversation in government before and after the tax cap enactment is night to day. The Dutchess County Legislature conversation changed from whether to raise taxes or cut spending to prevent the increase (our main topic of debate in 2010) to whether or not to exceed the property tax cap (our primary question in 2011). Unlike in 2010, where we cut spending, merged county departments, and laid off employees to balance our budget without raising taxes, in 2011 the status quo was preserved. We raised taxes 3.3%, while purging our reserve funds by $23-million to cover expenses for which we lacked revenues. Again legislators patted themselves on the back for a job well done and boasted that we did not exceed the tax cap.

Now that we have a property-tax culture that assures annual tax increases, the conversation has again shifted: not to whether taxes should rise, nor by how much, but rather how we can reduce the tax burden for interest groups. In other words, taxes are going up anyhow; who should we protect by singling out to exclusively receive tax relief?

Through the use of tax exemptions state legislators shield some from the tax burden at the expense of others, for which local governments can elect to opt in. The largest group to receive favorable treatment (and justifiably so) is our seniors who below a certain income annually receive partial relief from their school property taxes through the STAR program. Similarly veterans, disabled groups and first-responders have also been singled out as groups that should be exempt in part from the universal taxing authority of government. This month, nearby Ulster County’s executive proposed extending tax exemptions to first-time home-buyers.

Tax exemptions have no effect on the tax levy. In other words, the amount collected by government remains the same. What changes is the amount other taxpayers pay to make up the difference for the discounts afforded those in the privileged tax categories. Critics of tax exemptions complain on grounds of justice that exemptions are unfair, representing little more than a form of wealth distribution. Yet, the entire tax system built on tax brackets is designed to charge some people more, and others less.

Similarly our system of allowable deductions is intended to profit those in a special class who fulfill some socially-accepted role as in a student, homeowner, spouse or parent. Until and unless our state and nation moves towards a flat tax, the world of tax brackets, deductions and tax exemptions is the socially accepted norm. To that end I am supportive of current tax exemptions for our seniors and veterans, and at the request of a Millbrook constituent, will soon be advancing a proposal (details to follow) to enact on the county level a property tax exemption to assist low-income property owners who struggle with a disability.

Michael N. Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of the Millbrook in the County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

The Injustice of Legal Plunder

Mike Kelsey — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 01:01:21 GMT

There’s no law without philosophy. I’ve tried to stay true to this simple maxim in both my ruminations and approach to law-making. I constantly ask myself to what underlying principle is any law rooted, and how does it fare in particular with the U.S. and NYS Constitutions to which we legislators swear allegiance. Beyond that I look to authorities including the great (and sometimes not so great) philosophers, legal tradition, and public opinion as voiced on numerous issues. I personally strive for a legislative version of the Hippocratic Oath of doing no harm, which is why I’ve made it a habit to read annually the short and concise handbook of French Revolution-reactionary Frédéric Bastiat, entitled “The Law.”

While I have mixed reviews on Bastiat’s total discourse, the thrust of doctrine has always haunted me. Bastiat suggests the law operates as a form of plunder when it takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to other persons whom it does not belong. Overall he warns against a system that seeks to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else. As a result he says the laws passed by legislators have the power to displace capital, labor and populations. These state-created displacements, he says, annihilates justice while at the same time burdening government with added responsibilities that go beyond its proper functions. This legal plunder – his term for government sanctioned theft of personal property via taxation – takes on many forms including tariffs, subsidies, minimum wage, public schooling, entitlements and other euphemisms for socialist intervention. I would argue that the income taxing authority Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution itself is a vehicle for legal plunder, yet we legislators take oaths to uphold it.

I am often troubled in reconciling Bastiat with our social structure that in so many ways has already embraced and built up a system of social equalization that Bastiat calls “perverted law.” He warned against its ability to cause conflict by violating property instead of protecting it. I thought a lot about this a year ago when I met with Amenia property owners complaining of being overtaxed on their homes to pay for public schools. While I heard from some economically-struggling seniors, I heard more from those dismayed to be forced to pay for someone else’s education. Interestingly the right to public education has become a staple in the NYS Constitution as has expectation of social welfare and labor rights.

Bastiat argues that when law normalizes legal plunder that it erases from our minds the distinction between justice and injustice. He says that when morality and the law contradict that the citizen has the cruel alternative of losing his/her moral sense or losing respect for the law. His challenge to legislators is to make laws respectable.

In recent days I am again hearing the plights of property owners struggling under onerous property tax bills. While the county property tax is smaller than other taxes I wonder renewed how we lawmakers might succeed in restoring respect to the laws and budgets we adopt.

Michael N. Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the Dutchess County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

2012 To Be A Costly Year for Elections

Mike Kelsey — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 05:45:16 GMT

In 1713, Dutchess County residents elected their government leaders for the first time. Fast forward to 2012. This year the size of government and its inability to coordinate will provide unparalleled election opportunities in rapid succession. Unfortunately each comes with a steep price tag.

On March 20^th voters in our region will vote to elect a representative to the New York State Assembly in a special election to replace Marc Molinaro who resigned to serve as County Executive. A month later New York will hold its presidential primary on April 24^th, followed by a court ordered primary for U.S. Congressional seats set for June 26^th. The primary date will be moved up from September in compliance with the federal Military and Overseas Voting Act (MOVE) that mandates additional time for absentee ballots. The State also will move up its September primary and is eyeing August for such purpose. The result, including November’s general election, is that voters will go to the ballot box five times in 2012.

Each election costs about $100,000 to administer, with costs shared between the county and towns. At the County level, we budgeted for the special and presidential elections, but not for the additional primary date which exists onlu because state and federal leaders have failed to discuss a common primary date. (State legislators are resisting the notion to hold state primaries on the June 26^th federal primary day as the Albany Legislature is still in session in June giving challengers an unfair campaigning advantage).

Especially hard hit will likely be our towns who under cost-sharing must pay for the local election costs from unbudgeted sales tax revenues.

Cost controls are needed to minimize damages. In 2010, I authored the Legislator’s Guide to Cost-Savings at the Board of Elections, a 59-page report that suggested local ways to rein in spending. We adopted some of these ideas later in the year that amounted to a half million dollar reduction in board of election costs.

How can costs be further mitigated? For starters it makes perfect sense for the federal and state primary be held the same day. A second proposal is to reduce the number of inspectors mandated at poll sites. Under current state law, every election district must be staffed by four inspectors. This is unnecessary especially as seen in Washington where sixteen paid inspectors congregate in the Millbrook Firehouse where all four election districts meet in the center of town. Presently there is no mechanism in the law in place to reduce that number to the appropriate workload for each specific town.

Third, it’s time the law caught up to the new voter machine technology as mandated by the Help Americans Vote Act. Because the old lever machines would stop working after the 999^th voter showed up to vote, a cap on the number of voters in an election district should be enlarged from the current 1,150 voters to 2,500 (or to 4,000 with local commissioner approval). This change, which the new machines can easily process, will allow the number of election districts to be reduced, which in turn will reduce the number of inspectors who must be paid, as well as related machine deployment, transportation, and training costs.

Every freedom has its cost. Hopefully our elected leaders in Albany will do their part to make voting cheaper for the taxpayer.

Michael N. Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of the Millbrook in the Dutchess County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com. Elections Commissioner Erik Haight contributed to this story.

New Mental Health Funding Diverted

Mike Kelsey — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:52:28 GMT

The State made available to Dutchess County funding to build up community mental health in the wake of the Hudson River Psychiatric Center closure. The amount offered was $1.875-million, with $1.5-millon renewing annually, restricted to “diversionary” programs to reduce hospital admissions and arrests. This month the collective will of county government voted to “divert” and pervert the actual intention of such monies.

The County Legislature voted to accept the funding, but not with the mentally ill in mind. Just about half -- $900,000 will go not for the furtherance of mental health services, but will be “diverted” to replenish the county’s all-but depleted rainy-day fund balance (the 2012 budget was balanced using $26million of the $29million fund). The remainder will go towards preserving union jobs in the county workforce that were cut in the 2012 budget providing mobile crisis response services to aid law enforcement at rates higher than nonprofit professionals could provide. A small pittance will boost services at St. Francis Hospital and PEOPLe Inc. (my employer, meaning I was barred by legislative rules from voting and participating in floor debates). Seemingly forgotten are those once served by HRPC.

Historically Dutchess County has welcomed the mentally ill from across the state. It did so in connection with the state-administered Hudson River and Harlem Valley Psychiatric Centers and Taconic DDOS even before the 1934 reforms to the State Constitution enshrined social welfare including those suffering from mental disorder or defects. These changes, ratified during the Great Depression, required the State to assume a major role in social welfare, alongside counties. With this change came new funding with the growth of state financing of health-related initiatives. In 1938 the State paid just $5.8-million annually in health-related expenses compared to $77-million just thirty years later. At the same time counties grew statewide from $23.4-million to $64.9-million. Then came advances in psychotropic medications, the deinstitutionalization movement, and in the modern day, economic recessions.

Today, the movement is afoot to defund and downsize government funding of mental health service. The State did it in the early 1990s, and they did so again in 2011 in budget decisions that privatized mental health funding (in progress for completion in 2013) and locally closed Harlem Valley and now Hudson River psychiatric centers. The 2011 State budget also diminishes the powers of counties in delivering local care, with a shift in policy towards privatization. Amid this movement to privatize health care, the county’s vote this month to grow the mental health budget – already twice as high as Westchester who has triple the population – is senseless. It is senseless unless of course one considers that the purpose in accepting the money had little to do with community mental health, but with balancing budgets, settling labor disputes and bolstering law enforcement.

Michael Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the Dutchess County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

The Door Closes at Hudson River Psychiatric Center

Mike Kelsey — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:07:04 GMT

An historic chapter came to an end in Dutchess County on January 26^th when a 145-year-old institution, Hudson River Psychiatric Center, closed its doors for the last time. The only state hospital closure among 28 in existence in the state, Governor Cuomo targeted HRPC in the 2011 Budget in an attempt to close a $10billion deficit. It now joins Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center in Wingdale that closed in 1994 under the previous Governor Cuomo. Both hospitals once housed 6,000 patients in their heyday at a time when Dutchess County led the state in in-patient psychiatric care. Today, this historic role is preserved in a museum documenting the county’s leadership role in psychiatric care still housed on the HRPC grounds but perhaps destined for relocation to Marist College.

I studied psychopathology at Marist beneath HRPC’s former director and learned via slideshows and anecdotes a wealth of history regarding HRPC’s role in the lives of its patients. Some I had already seen firsthand through visits as an advocate for mental health services as a member of the county mental health subcommittee, and secondly as a provider at PEOPLe Inc., a mental health nonprofit at which I work. But my strongest impression of HRPC predates my professional focus.

In 1986, I was introduced to Hudson River Psychiatric Center when my mother became a patient there. I was eight years old. My dad brought me there to visit her to help her get better, and largely because I missed my mom. Even then I realized that the hospital was there to help mom get well so she could return home. At the time HRPC was part of a much larger campus, so that more people were treated locally meaning that families like me could come and visit and help our loved ones heal quicker so that they could come home faster. In subsequent years, as HRPC downsized and Saint Francis Hospital likewise cut back on beds, when mom needed hospitalization she was forced to Westchester and Putnam counties. This made visitation much harder for both of us, as it has for the roughly 80 county residents a month whose families must now travel great distances because local care has been severely undermined.

I don’t have a lot of memories of HRPC, but I have a strong memory of when one visit ended. At the end of visitation hours the guards would let us out the iron-thick doors. My mom stood there alone, with tears in her eyes, waving just as she did when I boarded the bus most mornings for school. On one visit a female patient attempted to race out the door. I watched as the guards struggled to hold her back. Mom stayed motionless except for the tears falling and the hand waving. In time she was well enough to come home, and life resumed although never quite the same for any of us.

Today the last of HRPC’s patients have now been transported miles away to the New Jersey border of Rockland County. In the weeks ahead our county will explore ways to spend the $1.875 million to be reinvested in the community. There will be much talk of diversion, safety nets, mobile crisis and other feel-good substitutions for inpatient care – gone will be the close-to-home hospital beds for our sick loved ones.

Now with the closure of HRPC complete, I feel a lot like my eight year-old self watching the door slam hard on the thousands of county residents who like my mom at times struggle in coping with sanity, emotion and life’s challenges. I think also of that nameless lady who tried to resist the closing of the HRPC door so many years ago. How I wish our state politicians would have showed similar courage to resist the systematic abolition of Dutchess County mental health hospital beds. Instead economic egoism and the erosion of compassion in public policy have permanently slammed the door shut.

Wellness on the Western Front

Mike Kelsey — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:36:23 GMT

By Western front, I mean Poughkeepsie, and while not all is well, things are looking up. This month, by a 24-1 margin the County Legislature moved initiatives of new County Executive Marc Molinaro forward in crucial areas of economic development and solid waste planning. Contrary to possible inferences, these were not rubber-stamping votes. The Legislature was critical – asking probing questions and performing soul-searching – and the Molinaro administration had to exert effort to work to curry favor, and they did. We proved that the democratic process worked while moving forward important initiatives. This is how I define wellness.

Responding to economic and unemployment angst heard on the campaign trail, the new county executive began our legislative term with a plan to restructure the planning department by adding a deputy in charge of strategic planning and economic development. The goal of this high level (but revenue-neutral) position will be to help regionalize local projects, support small business and grow the economy through planning, coordination and pro-activeness. It would be independent of, but work alongside, current economic entities including the Industrial Development Agency and the Economic Development Council. During our committee deliberations I was among the idea’s detractors.

I questioned philosophically whether government should become involved in job-creation and growing the economy. While acknowledging a perceived voter expectation of government leadership in these realms I questioned whether our role might be better served by staying outside and letting private enterprise correct itself. Practically I also inquired about whether concentrating influence in the county might strip autonomy from local governments. I was afraid that in the interest of “regionalization” that the county might place undue pressures on rural communities to accept development projects that may benefit the region but have the potential to scar and change the community identity that many of us work so hard to preserve. I could visualize the potential clashes between noble but competing values, and I spoke up for what I believe are the core values of the people I represent.

Other legislators were likewise concerned in many areas including whether this might just be a duplication of services like those performed at EDC and IDA. The County Executive and his staff rose to the challenge. They spent considerable time reaching out to legislators, answering questions, giving reassurances, even tweaking the job description to alleviate our concerns. In my case, they assured me that the county will empower local government with tools and resources but will not usurp decision-making authority or supersede local planning departments from shaping their community as they see fit. This reassurance won me over.

We also transferred solid waste planning authority from the Resource Recovery Agency to the County Government, which is expected to streamline costs and efficiency and result in a cleaner environment. Again, the County Executive was out in front addressing the Legislature on the topic, commenting on list-serves and speaking to our respective caucuses on our turf. He was committed not only to securing the necessary 13-votes but to achieving wide-spread buy-in, which despite the at-times adversarial nature of the separate branches he ultimately achieved. With these two key policy changes adopted we can rest assured that here our legislative system worked as it should.

Michael N. Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

Costs and Fairness of Child Support Considered

Mike Kelsey — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:41:42 GMT

Separately in recent weeks, Dutchess County has been considering the gigantic cost to house inmates at the county jail, and the increasing costs of indigent counsel at Family Court including the approved proposal to utilize public defenders in family court matters. I married these two issues together in asking jail administrators about the jail census. I learned that approximately one inmate per day at the County jail is there because he (mostly men) failed to pay child support. This was disturbing to learn since county jailing costs are so high due to overcrowding (we pay $6million a year to house out inmates to other counties). Not to mention there seems something archaic about using the county jail as a debtor’s prison. It also seems largely counter-productive to detain someone for non-payment, when the detention prevents them from working to pay down the debt. Presently attorneys are not assigned to poor people in child support matters. With the new public defender model coming to Family Court, I have requested that public defenders look into unpaid child support cases in an attempt to keep county taxpayer costs at the jail from rising further.

The topic got me thinking. In the Eighteenth Century support for children was considered a moral, but not a legal duty. Not so today. In 1975, the U.S. Congress enacted federal-state child support enforcement. Their goals were to reduce childhood poverty and reduce the welfare rolls. Congress assured States that they would be compensated with federal funds under TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) if they aggressively established paternity (goal of 90 percent) and set up systems for child support collection. Congress underscored child support programs as priorities in 1988 and again in 1993. How successful this system meets its goal is up to debate. In 1975, 17 percent of children under 18 lived below the poverty line. In 2009, that number was 20 percent.

At the same time, there are arguments that Child Support Guidelines are actually causing poverty of the non-custodial parent by in essence creating net wealth transfers amounting to unintentional spousal support. Elsewhere child support provisions are blamed for disrupting fathers’ relationships with the children. In particular child support provisions are being blamed for harming the re-entry into society of veterans and recently discharged military.

In 2009, a Veterans Affairs survey to veterans indicated legal assistance for child support as their second (out of 42) unmet needs (affordable child care was number one). The VA identified that often times support payments are set when a veteran is on active duty pay, but never readjusted when he ceases to be on active duty (and thus lower rate of pay). The VA reported a high number of veterans facing garnishment of their paychecks at 65% for unpaid child support. Additionally the interest rate on arrears (9% in New York) has not been adjusted to reflect current time value of money. Clearly there are policy considerations that should be examined beyond the welfare of the child. Let’s hope that in Dutchess County that public defenders or veterans affairs counselors soon take the first step towards reviewing support formulas for fairness.

Michael Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the Dutchess County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

Mike's Speech to the Republican Nominating Convention for NYS Assembly 103rd District

Mike Kelsey — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:02:24 GMT

January 14, 2012: Pleasant Valley Town Hall

Editor's Note: Although Mike did not receive the nomination for Assemblyman, we reprint his speech here so that the issues and values contained therein may live on.

Welcome! I say welcome because not only do I represent Pleasant Valley in the County Legislature, but Pleasant Valley is also my home.

Two-Hundred and Thirty-Six years ago a Presbyterian Minister from Pleasant Valley by the name of Melancton Smith stepped forward in his service to his town and fellow citizens. He became a delegate to the New York Provincial Congress then considering whether to break away from Great Britain. He helped organized militia, which he named the Dutchess County Rangers, and he served as county sheriff during the war for independence. Afterwards he fought against slavery, became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention as a fierce defender of state and local rights. When it came time for New York to ratify the federal constitution Melancton Smith was a key vote in approving the U.S. Constitution albeit with assurance that the rights of the individuals would be protected. Afterwards, in 1791 Melancton Smith of Pleasant Valley was elected to the New York State Assembly.

I tell you this at the start of my speech where I will ask for your vote to nominate me to represent you in the New York State Assembly, because our shared history, our heritage is part and parcel of who we are. From Red Hook, who will celebrate its 200^th anniversary this year to Wassaic, whose Borden Milk factory was founded 150-years ago last year whose condensed milk proved pivotal to outfitting our troops in the U.S. Civil War we hail from a proud region. We live in historic towns. You and I cherish our towns and the sense of community. We value our neighbors, and our representatives in government must do the same.

When I ran for County Legislature in 2009, I promised the four towns that I would come to represent that in me they would have a local presence. I have delivered. I attend monthly board meetings, participate in community events, I write weekly on substantive issues in our local newspapers and most importantly I bring their issues – the people’s issues – to Poughkeepsie with me. One cannot provide actual representation unless we’re in touch with the people we represent. We are a government of the people, by the people and for the people. These are the words of the founder of our party, Abraham Lincoln spoken at Gettysburg in the midst of the U.S. Civil War. We gather here today so that you as elected committee members of the 103^rd AD might represent the people of your respective towns. You must look at each of the three candidates here today and ask which one of us can best meet the needs of your neighbors? Who among us can best be our voice in Albany? Who here has the record and reputation for being fiscally conservative yet socially aware?

As a legislative aide to Assemblyman Joel Miller I learned to excel in constituent service in helping others navigate government red tape. As an attorney I help moms and dads navigate family court. As a director of a nonprofit I help some of the society’s most vulnerable citizens to find a job, volunteer and appreciate their self-worth. As a professor of philosophy and law I am preparing college students for their future success.

Our future is important. Our local municipalities are stretched thin, with budgets that will burst if Albany does not give us mandate relief. Just two nights ago during my monthly report to the Amenia town board a councilwoman told me how their town is suffering under the onerous mandate known as Wick’s Law. This burdensome law is increasing state and local construction costs, delaying projects and adding to municipal debt. We must join almost every other state in the nation in adopting a single contract method by repealing Wicks Law and giving our local governments sorely needed relief.

At the County level, we are being crushed by nine unfunded mandates that together comprise 90%of our budgets. Although worthy causes in themselves, these mandates strip autonomy from local leaders to decide for themselves the needs of our community and how to meet them. It has placed us county legislators with little choice but to either raise taxes or cut the services upon which people have come to rely. As a county legislator I have made the tough choices to cut services and lay off workers while preserving our most essential programs. But the future is grim. Unless Albany can deliver on mandate relief this year Dutchess County’s budget will face a deficit and services must be cut. We need someone in Albany who will take the time to understand these mandates and show leadership in reducing them.

As a first-term county legislator I got behind an election cost-sharing mandate that was threatening to burden our town governments. I studied it in depth, and sponsored legislation that cut the cost charged to ours towns by almost half while providing incentives for further cost reductions.

I studied also the state mandate of Special Education Placement that last year cost Dutchess County taxpayers $7-million to house out kids whose school districts could not provide them with appropriate education. This figure, which mind you is double the annual fee we pay for the Resource Recovery Agency, can be avoided if we get serious about managing the mandates here at home. Wouldn’t it be great if we could ask our county’s twelve school districts to enter into a program of shared services such that each district specialized in offering a different form of specialized special education such that our children with special needs can learn locally and thus reducing county expenses by $7million per year?

Building coalitions locally is important. We are long past the time when we can operate in silos. Now adays we need to transcend boundaries and come together as partners in a collaborative approach. After the county budget cut youth services last year, I became involved in building a coalition focused on youth empowerment in Eastern Dutchess. Comprised of five school districts, nonprofits and parents we now meet monthly to discuss issues facing kids today including drugs and gangs.

Children are our future. After my father died, I went through a rough time. I was fortunate to have the guiding hands of two successive scoutmasters who picked up where my dad left off in teaching me the values of integrity, hard work and perseverance. Today, I give back to youth as an Assistant Scoutmaster helping to build character and community awareness into our future leaders.

I’m told Albany is a corrupt place. Just recently one of our own electeds was convicted of wrongdoing and sentenced to prison. We need someone representing us that strives to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. The Scout Law is the code that I accepted for my life a long time ago. We can’t legislate morality but we sure as well can expect our legislators to be moral.

Special interest is a real threat to our democracy. It used to be the case that government’s power was limited to those policies that provided benefit to all, and not to one or more groups at the expense of others. Somewhere we in New York lost our way, and the laws and even the Constitution of the state have been written to cater to special interest. This has got to change.

We must return to a mindset where governmental role is minimal, and where intervention into the affairs of its citizens is limited to a clear public purpose. When government deviates we need a representative who has the courage to speak up. On the floor of the county legislature I have not been afraid to present a different point of view or vote no when a policy defied logic or interfered with human freedom. In the Assembly I would harness the same courage to speak up for our shared Republican values and advocate for the needs of the people of the 103^rd Assembly District.

Few issues are under attack more in the Democrat-controlled Assembly than the Second Amendment. We saw how in Melancton Smith's time our local and individual liberties were earned and fought for not only by the strength of our words and intellects, but with access to arms. Freedom is an empty concept without the ability to rise up when government becomes tyranical. I attended and fundraised for the National Rifle Association, am a gun-owner, and have facilitated gun safety and shooting sports programs for youth as well as created the annual "Shoot the Shamrock" event for the County Young Republicans, when I served as chairman.

I am hearing from constituents of problems begging for solutions. A councilman from Unionvale wrote me that assisted living for our seniors is at capacity in Dutchess County with long waiting lists, and that the parent company of The Fountains at Millbrook wants to expand to meet this crucial need, but that state licensing regulations are interfering. How is it that state licensing prevents not only our community from meeting the needs of elder populations, but our businesses from growing?

In this stagnant economy we need the State to free up regulations so that businesses can expand and prosper and create the jobs that so many of our neighbors so desperately need.

In this economy there are a lot of needy people out there right now. Somehow people have come to expect government to play an active role in maintaining the steady growth of the economy and providing a variety of welfare programs to those in need. Somehow, we have got to wean people off government assistance, but we cannot do this until society steps up. We build society up by strengthening our churches and nonprofits. It’s been one of my missions to help promote food pantries ever since my family found itself receiving donations from the Saint Vincent De Paul Society at Saint Columba Church following the death of our breadwinner. In 2006, I established the annual Scouting for Food food drive, and it’s a core function of my political campaign to inspire voters not only to come out and vote but to help stock the local food pantries. This week my campaign team distributed over 1,000 donated bags to households in four towns with instructions to fill the bag and bring it to a nearby foodbank. Yesterday morning I received a call from Carol Miller in Hopewell Junction who was inspired by the request such that when she took her filled grocery bag to the pantry that she learned that the pantry serves 500 families per week and has had to turn people away for lack of food. She says she will now make it a routine to donate food.

I have an active campaign team. We have four fundraisers ready to take shape upon receiving the nomination. I also have a strong record of grassroots campaigning. In 2009, I was victorious in defeating a popular and entrenched legislator who was impenetrable for over a quarter of a century including service in the leadership of a Democratic majority. Through hard-work and plenty of door-knocking I helped the Republican party retake the County Legislature. With your help I would like to help the Republican Party retake the New York State Assembly.

I have the experience in campaigning, governing and the community involvement to serve as an effective Assemblyman. My professional life makes me relevant and capable of contributing. I have never been lacking in energy or enthusiasm. In a little while each of you will exercise your duty as committee members to select the person you most want representing you and representing our community. I am ready, willing and able to represent you. But the decision is yours. If you decide not to vote for me, know that I will continue to do my best to represent my constituents in the County Legislature and to that end my ear will always be available to you. Also please know that I will respect the decision of the convention and will not primary your choice of candidate.

Service to the community is an honor. Each of you have stepped forward as electors and I thank you for your service. Should it be your wish for me to represent you on the Republican line I will work hard to secure the seat, and harder to be your voice in Albany and at home in building up the community.

In 2001, following the events of September 11^th that weekend my boyhood home of East Fishkill faced a dilemma. The town had planned to celebrate Community Day that weekend but owing to the somber mood of the nation, nobody knew whether they should cancel. The issue was debated, and then someone came up with a solution. Now more than ever, each of us needed to come together not so much for community, but as in unity. Someone noticed that the word “community” contains the word, “unity.” Out came the scissors. True story. As we move on after today, let us a be a party not only of community, but let us also be a party of unity. Thank you.

Legislative Chairman Outlines 2012 Agenda

Mike Kelsey — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:04:00 GMT

At the County Legislature’s opening session in early January we re-elected Rob Rolison as our chairman for the third consecutive year. Chairman Rolison spoke of our policy priorities for the coming year in his acceptance speech. Excerpts are included below:

Solid Waste

“In 2010 I created a Resource Recovery Reform Committee that was designed to investigate ways to improve our recycling rate and reduce the County subsidy from our waste-to-energy facility. Under the leadership of Legislator Jim Miccio (Fishkill) this committee has researched and debated how best to fulfill its mission. Their conversations with waste haulers, solid waste managers, consultants, community leaders, State agencies and regional partners have resulted in a better informed Legislature and public regarding the issues of resource recovery. It is the belief of this Committee that the waste-to-energy facility does provide a vital service to the people of Dutchess County – a more environmentally friendly method to dispose of 100,000 tons of solid waste annually than burying it in a landfill. Thus it should not be shuttered, but perhaps sold. Placed into the hands of private operators the facility might become self-sufficient with an opportunity to expand via private investment. … If the public sector is incapable of doing something smarter and cheaper the private sector should have the chance to take the reins.”

Jail

“The Dutchess County jail continues to exceed capacity on a daily basis. A jail designed for 292 inmates with a population often in excess of 400 has resulted in the dangerous and costly policy of boarding out inmates in other jail facilities around the State. … In the very near future the Jail Study Advisory Committee, chaired by Legislator Ken Roman (Poughkeepsie), will release its report for feedback and in it they move Dutchess County one step closer to hiring the necessary consultants to develop plans to expand and modernize our current jail facility. If the current jail’s footprint is not suitable then a new location must be found to house our inmates. Whether it is a retro-fit of an existing structure or a brand new one, the bottom line is that a bricks and mortar solution is needed to address the issue of overcrowding at the jail.”

Mandate Relief

“We legislators must pledge to work with our new County Executive [Marc Molinaro] and help him create the government infrastructure needed to assist businesses, create jobs and revitalize our economy. We can assist our businesses and families by doing what we have done for the last two years – maintain core County services while holding the line on taxes. … County government does a lot, but it is handcuffed by the State’s inability to deliver unfunded mandate relief. While struggling to provide its own core services, County Government must also administer State required services without adequate funding from the State. The New York State Association of Counties points out that the nine “big” state mandates consume 90% of county property tax levies statewide. This means that counties only have true control over 10% of their levies and often these mandates result in the increase of taxes for local homeowners. This trend must stop and State lawmakers must deliver on their promise of mandate relief.”

Michael Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the Dutchess County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

County's Transition Is an Opportunity for Reflection on Our Heritage

Mike Kelsey — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:03:00 GMT

The New Year’s holiday causes us to look forward to 2012 with anticipation, but also to reflect back on the previous year. With the transfer of power from County Executive Bill Steinhaus to newly-elected Marc Molinaro, Dutchess County government has also been looking both forwards and backwards. The Legislature recognized Steinhaus for his long service to county government at the final county legislative meeting in December. First elected in 1991, he served as County Executive for 20 years and as County Clerk for thirteen prior to that. We also honored four departing legislators including Suzanne Horn (R-Pleasant Valley) and Sandra Goldberg (D-Wappingers), both for 20 years of dedicated service. High-ranking staff retirements included Legislative Clerk Patty Hohmann, after 38-years at the Legislature and Steinhaus’ Chief of Staff, Nancy Giordano. In many ways it is an end of era, not to mention the start of a new one.

Steinhaus spoke about how he was inspired to enter public service through his freshman political science course at Dutchess Community College. At the time his professor, Jack Lippman, was chairing the committee that produced the County Charter — the instrument that today provides the framework for County Government. Hohmann, who began clerking for the Legislature in the 1970s, reflected on how things have changed including when Legislative meetings were dominated mostly by men smoking big cigars. At retirement parties the walls were adorned with photo collages depicting the progress and evolution of Dutchess County in the last few decades. It seemed to underscore perfectly Steinhaus’ advice to legislators as he reflected on the close of his county career, “Democracy works.

Documenting and recalling history is important. Filling a void in historical scholarship the County Legislature appropriated $25,000 in the 2012 County Budget to appoint a County Historian. Provided for in the Charter but vacant for some time, the Historian position is intended to record our history and heritage because history and heritage is central to maintaining and understanding our identity as a county.

When appointed the new County Historian will take his/her place on the County Heritage Committee that was formed in April by a resolution that I authored. This Heritage Committee has been meeting since October to plan activities to commemorate the County’s proud history during Heritage Days (October 23rd-November 1st) including a special 2013 celebration of the 300th anniversary of democracy in Dutchess County. The committee reflects the geographical differences of the county (opportunities to serve still exist), and is composed of town historians, school teachers, academics, re-enactors, genealogists and history buffs from all walks of life. It wisely paired up with Dutchess County Tourism for help with marketing and — it is hoped — will result in local economic fecundity.

The Heritage Committee has designated five themes that they are focusing on to illustrate the County’s heritage. These include Agriculture, Education, Transportation/Industry, Political/Military, and Arts/Architecture/Culture. The committee is seeking volunteers to serve on these subcommittees. Early brainstorming ideas include producing a commemorative book, websites, classroom lesson plans and events including a possible transportation-themed parade showcasing the evolution of locomotion in all its various forms.

History is fascinating. So also is opportunity. As county government turns a page we look forward not only with appreciation for the past, but with a commitment to excellence for the future.

County Mental Health Clinics to Change in 2012

Mike Kelsey — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:58:00 GMT

Dutchess County’s 2012 budget includes a shift from continuing day treatment (CDT) mental health clinics to those with a personalized recovery emphasis. This change will be felt this year in Millbrook, Dover, Rhinebeck, Poughkeepsie and Beacon. It is a decision that as it stands now will result in the layoff of 22 jobs in April, and the all but certain legal arbitration initiated by their union. The shift from continuing day treatment where participants go daily for continuous care is to a clinic model that is designed to be temporary care. Its goal is to transition people; allowing previously institutionalized persons to integrate back into the community by imparting independent living and employment skills. Among all the statewide changes to the modern mental health system that 2011 ushered in, it will be the least unsettling in fulfilling the State’s role to those in need.

New York’s role in the mental health field dates to 1894 when the Constitution was amended to create a system of State Hospitals for the insane. It was not however until the Great Depression in 1938 that the State leapt head-first into social welfare by adding two articles to the State Constitution: Housing and Social Welfare. Section I of Article 17 specifies “the needy” while Section III describes “those suffering from mental disorder or defects” as targeted populations. The constitutional change is significant as it created an affirmative social expectation for the needy as well as a requirement for the State to assume a major role in meeting their economic and social needs.

The same Constitutional Convention enshrined social rights by making social welfare among the exceptions to its own limitations on use of state credit and restrictions upon local debt and taxation in Section 8. This meant that governments still had to exercise fiscal discipline, but that they could go into debt or tax to provide for the needs of the less fortunate. Specifically mentioned in the Constitution were aid and support for the needy, children, the unemployed, the sick, the old, and the physically handicapped. The language went beyond permissive (may) but said that it is “the responsibility of the State for the aid, care and support of persons in need.” A 1977 Court of Appeals case, Tucker v. Toia, reaffirmed the seriousness of the State’s role in determining that it was the judiciary’s role to see that the Legislature does not “shirk its responsibility.”

With hospital closures and sweeping systematic reform amid the trying financial times of today, the State — it could be argued — is departing at least in substance if not in form from the policies of 1894 and 1934.

The same is not true of Dutchess County. The shift from CDTs to recovery clinics, although accelerated by the decrease in state reimbursement rates, is grounded also in modern concepts of mental health. The elimination of 49 positions including 22 layoffs will save taxpayers money and the new privatized recovery clinics will be infused with a philosophy that emphasizes not mental illness, but mental wellness.

Adopted 2012 County Budget Reflects Policy Change

Mike Kelsey — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:58:00 GMT

By a vote of 16-9, the Dutchess County Legislature passed the 2012 County Budget in early December. The budget raises the tax levy by 3.3 percent but keeps it under the state-imposed tax cap because pension costs and other expenses are exempt from the two-percent cap. Due to declining home values the tax rate will increase about six percent, which translates into about a $50 increase for a home valued at $250,000. While some including the County Comptroller have been critical of the budget’s sizeable reliance on fund balance ($25 million) Moody’s Investor’s Service seemed less concerned instead renewing the County’s Aa2 bond rating a week prior to the budget’s adoption.

Legislative leaders worked with outgoing and incoming county executives Bill Steinhaus and Marc Molinaro in adjusting expense lines and realigning priorities. Changes include holding money in contingency to cover election expenses should the Governor call for a special election for the 100th and 103rd Assembly Districts which are vacant by the death of Assemblyman Tom Kirwan (representing Beacon and Poughkeepsie), and in Eastern Dutchess the resignation of Marc Molinaro to assume the office of County Executive.

Also in the 2012 County Budget is a strong emphasis on solid waste management including funding for a solid waste director and three staff members including a recycling coordinator. There was a clear shift in environmental priorities towards county leadership on solid waste which was central to a consultant’s report received earlier this year. I supported the shift although I remain uneasy about growing government when public opinion seems to be moving towards the eventual disbanding of the Resource Recovery Agency and privatization of the industry. I’m assured that the county solid waste department will be temporary tasked only to facilitate the eventual privatization of the waste industry, but I have my doubts.

Solid waste management was given higher priority in the 2012 budget than other environmental issues including a $25,000 reduction in the environmental program at Cornell Cooperative Extension. The environmental programs affected include the citizen-led Environmental Management Council which provides coordination to town conservation councils. I fought for the restoration of CCE environmental funds but was unsuccessful in part due to several legislators’ criticism of EMC independently involving itself in the solid waste field.

I did however achieve success in maintaining agriculture as a county priority by increasing the Cornell Cooperative Extension budget by $16,000. The new funding will benefit farmers by permitting the county to enter into a regional fruit and vegetable program as well as increase consultant staff hours for farm visits to assist new and emerging farms. An additional $16,000 was awarded to the Soil and Water Conservation district to assist with stream management and rehabilitation to prevent flooding as experienced in recent storms.

The two largest institutional changes include the creation of a family court public defender unit to provide indigent legal counsel and the layoff of 22 mental hygiene jobs as the county’s continuing day treatment clinics are privatized to embrace a new mental hygiene recovery-oriented model. A small appropriation was also given to the Criminal Justice Council to assist the Legislature when the time comes to move forward in alleviating jail overcrowding.

These noble agenda items notwithstanding, the agreed-upon central mission in 2012 will, by necessity, be efforts to replenish the County’s fund balance.

Assigned Counsel Poised to Change at Family Court

Mike Kelsey — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:57:00 GMT

At the time of this writing the County Budget has passed from committee and is awaiting approval by the full Legislature. An important institutional change that seems imminent is the shift in assigned counsel at Family Court to a public defender model. All three family court judges spoke at length against a public defender model at public hearings and in letters alluding to anticipated inefficiencies in quality of representation, cost and workability. Yet the public defender model appears ready to succeed largely because it is funded in part by a grant, freeing up tax money to be spent on other needs. Budgets like all government policy are shaped not always by what’s ideal, but by the bottom line.

County government's Public Defender office presently provides indigent legal counsel to residents charged with a crime without means to afford their own attorney. In Family Court, judges presently assign private attorneys not on the county payroll, who the judges argue are actually cheaper in that the county does not pay overhead for private attorneys. The judges also argue the typical criminal matter is simpler since plea bargains are standard, but that in family court cases emotions are high-charged, outcomes are less certain and basic legal representation includes night and weekend work when visitations tend to take place.

The fields of criminal law and family law are incongruent. Criminal law is punitive, seeking to punish criminal acts while serving public purposes. It exercises the power of the State to satisfy society’s need for retribution, while deterring future crime, and denouncing wayward conduct. The role of family law however is not to send normative messages or determine guilt but to remedy practical problems with the goal of stabilizing or preserving families. Family law is not intended to be punitive, and often considers the interests of all involved family members particularly children. Wherein a typical criminal case will have two parties — the prosecution and the defense, in family court it is not uncommon to find three, four or five parties all represented separately by counsel (children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.). Privately assigned counsel will still be needed for these third parties even if the county adopts a public defender model since the public defender will be conflicted from taking more than one side in a case.

What's being decided then is whether the County should hire two attorneys to reduce the caseload of the current private attorneys. These salaried employees who will enjoy county overhead and benefits will only be available to clients between the hours of 9-5, Mondays through Fridays when not in court. They will be conflicted from taking neglect or child abuse cases as the County (Child Protective Services) brings the charges. They also may be conflicted from domestic violence cases if the matter is also being tried in criminal courts. The judges say it’s a bad idea. It’s too bad in this day of tax caps and stringent budgets that reason and quality of service must take backseats to new revenue lines.

Equestrians and Jewelry-Owners Take Note: County Considers Local Laws

Mike Kelsey — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:33:00 GMT

Even the most mild-seeming government regulation affects the people under its care. I remind myself of this frequently when weighing proposed county legislation versus the social contract theory of 17^th Century philosophers Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and others. These thinkers held that for the good of the whole, individuals mutually consent to cede certain rights so that we all can live in stable tranquility. As the County Legislature debated two proposed local laws at its November board meeting I found myself asking whether the societal benefits were worth the forfeited rights of the individual, as well as concepts of punishment, administrative justice and the nature of humanity.

The first law proposed banning the riding of horses, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles on county rail trails as well as Bowdoin and Wilcox Parks. An earlier draft of this law considered in August proposed banning kite flying, sledding, and other commonly viewed park activities. I was a vocal opponent to that draft of the law as these were activities that to me were park pursuits per se. In response the County Parks Department scaled back their proposed banned activities list to target only horse-back riding, snowmobiling and ATV-use. This we considered this month.

An amendment that I supported to allow exceptions for horseback-riding in Wilcox Park at the discretion of the Parks Director failed to gain sufficient votes. The County Attorney told legislators that the County considers it at risk for liability if injuries were to arise from horse or motor vehicle accidents. The penalty provision of the proposed law made ATV or snowmobile-use a violation and impoundment for first offense, but a misdemeanor upon second offense. The penalty for riding a horse in county parks was an automatic misdemeanor with possible jail time on the first offense. To this disparity in treatment I objected and succeeded by amendment in removing jail time for equestrians and in making the first offense a mere violation likened to a parking ticket. Because the law was amended on the floor, a vote on the entire law was precluded. It is expected to return to our agenda on December 1^st (committee) and the 5^th (Board meeting). Public comment will be permitted.

The second law was an update of a 1987 law that required the licensing of pawnbrokers, and their regulation in mandatory reporting of all purchases of jewelry and precious metals. The concept behind this law was that by logging purchases, that law enforcement would be better able to track sales of items reported stolen in area burglaries. While a legitimate use of the police power I argued against this law on a number of grounds. First it required the prior collection of the seller’s information including a thumbprint that I thought automatically held all humans as suspect: “a ferocious animal” in the depraved human nature characterization of Thomas Hobbes. The majority of people have honest reasons for the commerce of precious metals I argued as in estate sales or economic need. I objected to the inference that humanity is intrinsically bad by default.

I also objected that the law places an undue burden on local brokers that will discourage small business in an age of unregulated Internet sales of jewelry, coins and metals. The law’s extended wait period prior to sales from 5-7 days to give law enforcement more time to track would-be thefts could also deter the use of local pawnbrokers, as would the required daily sworn affidavits that pawnbrokers need to file describing their business dealings. Failure to comply could result in license forfeiture, with no checks and balance in the appeal process. After discussion on my objections the sponsors pulled the local law prior to a vote. It is unknown whether it will return in a modified form.

Michael Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

County Executive's 2012 Budget Released

Mike Kelsey — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:57:00 GMT

On November 1st County Executive Bill Steinhaus issued his final County Budget, for which the Legislature will spend most of November scrutinizing and amending before final adoption in December. After twenty years at the county’s helm Steinhaus will retire in January. In a sense his final budget appears a parting gift. It includes not a single cut to county contract agencies including Millbrook’s Cornell Cooperative Extension. In fact, the proposed budget includes funding for a new 4-H leader, agriculture and soil and water conservation projects and a new domestic violence position — oddities, since recent Executive Budgets followed a pattern of austerity.

The budget is not, however, without its sting. As has become commonplace in today’s economic environment, the Department of Mental Hygiene is the budget’s biggest target. During last year’s budget process the county’s outpatient clinics where patients receive psychiatric medication were targeted. I fought relentlessly — and successfully — to maintain their funding. Then came the severe cuts by the State in the April State budget. These included the slated closure of Hudson River Psychiatric Center and the Taconic DDSO, and eventual privatization of mental hygiene services affected by downsizing counties to “consultant” roles. Continuing this trend, Steinhaus’ budget seeks to privatize the county’s five continuing day treatment centers (where daycare programs are provided). Such a shift will capture previous unavailable Medicaid funding, but will do so at the expense of county jobs. Forty-nine mental hygiene jobs are slated for elimination including 22 current employees.

The budget raises the tax levy 3.3% to $411 million, which is above the state-imposed 2% limit but is a permissible increase since the increase includes state pension costs, which are exempt. Pension costs have grown enormously ($3 million growth in one year) but even with the 3.3% levy increase an average household should expect to see taxes rise only about $20 for the year under Steinhaus’ plan.

Steinhaus complains in his budget message that the State Legislature failed to enact any meaningful state mandates relief. State mandated costs have grown by nearly $7.3 million since 2007. Rising mandates would have forced him to cut essential county services to keep the budget within the property tax cap, something he was unwilling to do. Instead, Steinhaus anticipates Albany’s eventual mandate reform by under-budgeting the county’s required share of Medicaid and Early Intervention costs by $2.2 million.

The Steinhaus budget balances itself by an unprecedented dependence on fund balance. This is the reserve that government maintains for rainy-days as well as to preserve its bond rating. Dutchess County enjoys an Aa1 rating (only two counties enjoy a higher rating). Bond rating agencies like to see 5-10% of the budget kept in the fund balance. Steinhaus’ budget borrows $27 million from fund balance, reducing the reserve to 1.3% of the budget.

The Legislature must wrestle through these budget considerations as well as form policy decisions in other areas including whether to transform indigent legal counsel at family court to a public defender model.

Steinhaus’ final budget ends his 20-year reign with continued fiscal discipline. Once again no county employee receives a COLA, and the workforce is leaner than it’s been since the mid-1980s. He proudly acknowledges this in his budget message that “Dutchess County taxes its residents 23% less per capita and spends 26% less per capita than the statewide average, ranking us among the lowest of all 57 New York counties for spending and taxes per resident.”

2012 Count Budget Preview: Indigent Legal Counsel

Mike Kelsey — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:35:00 GMT

On November 1^st the County Executive will deliver his proposed 2012 County Budget. A public hearing will be held November 10^th. The details of the budget are presently unknown, but one issue that is certainly to be included is the future form and funding of indigent legal counsel at Dutchess County Family Court. In 2010, this cost county taxpayers about $2million.

Last year’s budget included the novel idea of converting the indigent legal counsel model used in Family Court proceedings from an assigned counsel panel of private attorneys to a public defender model utilizing county attorneys. This plan to create a six-public-defender family court unit was ultimately rejected by the Legislature after uproar from Family Court judges and some members of the county bar association (I abstained due to a conflict). There were doubts about whether the plan would save money, and whether it could maintain the same level of quality in legal representation. Legislators decided instead to place the issue on hold for a year so that committees could reflect sufficiently.

In a time where government is learning to do more with less, the rising cost of counsel fees has been problematic. Court watchers acknowledge that with a poor economy more and more people involved in family court are qualifying as indigent, as well as changes in state law have widened the claims able to be brought into Family Court. In 2010, Dutchess County Family Court had 15,634 case filings, which is the sixth highest in New York outside New York City and Long Island.

For the last year the assigned counsel panel at Family Court has been self-policing themselves in an attempt to lower costs. At the same time two panels (one appointed by the Legislature, the other by the Bar Association) have been studying the issue in-depth.

The right to an attorney is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and the right for the poor to have counsel assigned in non-capital matters dates back to the 1963, U.S. Supreme Court decision, Gideon v. Wainwright. There, in a unanimous opinion, Justice Hugo Black wrote "In our adversary system of criminal justice, any person hailed into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him.” In family law the right to counsel extends to custody, family offense, abuse and neglect cases (but not divorce as some in the community have recently been advocating).

In 1965, New York passed County Law 18-B that set the framework for assigned counsel panels in Family Court. In recent years counties have begun experimenting with other means including legal service agencies and use of public defender offices.

The issue of converting to a public defender family court model is expected to resurface in the 2012 budget in a hybrid proposal. It is anticipated that two full-time public defenders will be proposed with a funding mechanism too good to pass up. It is expected that these public defenders will be funded not by tax dollars as assigned counsel attorneys presently are, but by a multi-year $240,000 grant from the NYS Office of Indigent Legal Services.

An important distinction, the funding stream for Indigent Legal Services (who spoke at this month’s County Bar Association luncheon on the topic) is funded not by property taxes but by outside funding including dedicated fees charged for criminal background checks or interest earned on attorney escrow accounts. It’s early but I predict that the hybrid approach to indigent counsel made by possible by the innovative ILS funding mechanism will become a component of the 2012 County Budget.

The County's Job Front Update

Mike Kelsey — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:57:00 GMT

In our current economy where unemployment remains high people are looking to government for solutions. While job creation is not a traditional governmental role, creating and fostering environments ripe for economic development and job creation has become an expectation among the electorate. In September and October, the County Legislature received reports from the county Industrial Development Agency, Economic Development Corporation and the Workforce Investment Board on their efforts to revitalize the county’s economic health.

Authorized by 1976 state law, Dutchess County’s Industrial Development Agency exists as a public benefit corporation to induce companies to invest capital in projects within the county that will ultimately grow the county tax base and create jobs. They do this through tax-exempt bond financing, authorizing lower interest rates than conventional financing, real property tax abatements and at times exempting projects from sales or mortgage taxes or utilizing payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) programs.

The Dutchess County Economic Development Corporation focuses on attracting, retaining and expanding businesses and non-profit organizations including promoting tourism. EDC led legislators on tours of some of their projects during October including the new Hudson Bailer single-stream recycling plant now under construction in Beacon. This will create 30-60 new jobs with hiring beginning in December.

Also under construction in Beacon is a 50,000-square-foot addition to the Megatronics factory, a manufacturer of packaging for Gillette razors. This will permit the company to consolidate its entire workforce in Dutchess County. In Wappinger, Adams Fairacre Farms is building its new supermarket with assistance in financing from the IDA. Adams is expected to create 200 new jobs.

In September the EDC announced that a Chinese solar technology company plans to relocate to East Fishkill thereby creating 1,000 jobs.

Health Quest has received IDA-assistance with the $60million financing of the Vassar Brothers Hospital expansion. Astor Services for Children & Families also benefitted in its 22-square-foot upgrade to its Rhinebeck center. All local projects use local contractors, so that the money is spent locally while creating local construction jobs.

From each project the IDA collects a fee that is then distributed to nonprofits. In recent months the IDA awarded the Bardavon Opera House $120,000 for capital upgrades, $5,000 to highlight local wineries at the Dutchess County Fair, $25,000 to sponsor agribusiness, as well as additional funding to sponsor a trade show and upgrades to the Mount Gulian Revolutionary War site in Beacon.

While the IDA and EDC work to create new jobs, the Workforce Investment Board works to address local workforce development by helping individuals attain the skills necessary for employability. Acting locally, the WIB was created by federal statute under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. Several times per year the County Legislature votes to receive federal funding that empowers the WIB to assist county residents with career counseling, resume writing, and tutorials on soft and hard job skills. In 2010, the Dutchess County WIB readied 2,672 unemployed adults to find employment.

Despite the grim economy, these county agencies’ local efforts are providing glimmers of hope.

2012 County Budget Preview: Indigent Legal Counsel

Mike Kelsey — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:56:00 GMT

On November 1st the County Executive will deliver his proposed 2012 County Budget. The details of the budget are presently unknown, but one issue that is certain to be included is the form and funding of indigent legal counsel at Dutchess County Family Court. This cost soared in 2010 to about $2million.

Last year’s budget included a novel idea to convert the indigent legal counsel model used in family court proceedings from an assigned counsel panel of private attorneys to a public defender model utilizing county-employed attorneys. The plan to create a six-public-defender family court unit was ultimately rejected by the Legislature after uproar from family court judges and some members of the county bar association. There were doubts about whether the plan would save money, and whether it could maintain the same level of quality legal representation. Legislators decided instead to place the issue on hold for a year to allow committees to study the proposal.

In a time where government is learning to do more with less, the rising cost of counsel fees has been problematic. Court watchers acknowledge that with a poor economy more people involved in family court are qualifying as indigent. In addition changes in state law have enlarged the scope of claims able to be brought into family court. In 2010, Dutchess County Family Court had 15,634 case filings, which is the sixth highest in New York outside New York City and Long Island.

For the last year the assigned counsel panel at family court has been self-policing themselves in an attempt to lower costs. At the same time two panels (one appointed by the Legislature, the other by the Bar Association) have been studying the issue in-depth.

The right to an attorney is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and the right for the poor to have counsel assigned in non-capital matters dates back to the 1963, U.S. Supreme Court decision, Gideon v. Wainwright. There, in a unanimous opinion, Justice Hugo Black wrote "In our adversary system of criminal justice, any person hauled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him.” In family court the right to counsel extends to custody, family offense, abuse and neglect cases (but not divorce as some have recently advocated).

In 1965, New York passed County Law 18-B that set the framework for assigned counsel panels. In recent years counties have begun experimenting with other means including legal service agencies and use of public defender offices.

It is anticipated that full-time public defenders will again be proposed in 2012. This year it is likely to pass in a reduced form thanks to the infusion of a multi-year $240,000 grant from the NYS Office of Indigent Legal Services. ILS (who spoke at this month’s County Bar Association luncheon on the topic) is not funded by taxes but by dedicated funding streams including fees charged for criminal background checks or interest earned on attorney escrow accounts. ILS’ involvement makes the proposal attractive as it means the costs associated with hiring public defenders will not come from tax dollars, as assigned counsel attorneys presently are.

The Report Before the Report: County Considers Jail Options

Mike Kelsey — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:56:00 GMT

In September the full Legislature heard from SUNY New Paltz’s Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) on a draft report of their, “A Collaborative Approach to County Jailing in the Hudson Valley.” The report compares and contrasts situations in five neighboring counties and offers both suggestions and statistics.

Dutchess County leads the state in housing out inmates. We presently provide over a third (34.7%) of the boarded out county inmates in all of New York. CRREO’s report calls this a “crisis in jail capacity.” The net cost per inmate per day in Dutchess County is $227.88. This cost includes the fee to other counties to board out and transportation costs. In comparison, Orange County’s cost is $149.10. Ulster’s cost, who built a new jail in 2007, is $102.17.

In November 2009, Dutchess County traveled 15,127 miles over 299 trips to transport 1,040 inmates utilizing 1,030 hours of travel time for inmate transports. The County primarily boards inmates in Renselear County, but also uses Washington, Warren, Schoharie, Ulster, Putnam and Orange. Virtually all of the drivers, full-time correction officers, were paid over-time. In 2010, the overtime costs exceeded $3.8million. Personnel costs in the jail’s $32million budget have increased 77.3% since 2006.

Transportation costs are impacted also by court appearances. In 2009, Dutchess County traveled a total of 1,787 miles transporting inmates to and from local justice courts. If towns and villages would better coordinate the nights/mornings they held court, the CRREO report claims a 68% reduction to 575 miles. CRREO also suggests reducing the number of town courts through mergers and consolidations, better-utilization of video courtroom services, and locating courtrooms directly into jails (instead paying the judge’s mileage).

Noting that regionally the largest challenge is mental health needs, the CRREO report recommends creating a regional secure mental health facility (not unlike the retrofitted Hudson River Psych Center jail annex I have been proposing). Both Orange and Columbia counties report that 75% of their current jail population receives psychotropic medication.

The report also suggests county jails utilize the state-run automated central pharmacy and nutritional services food production centers that serve all state prisons for medications and meals. Columbia County is currently the only county to do so.

The report indicates that in Dutchess County “some new construction is clearly needed,” but also suggests utilizing a regional-based boarding agreement at a centrally-placed overflow facility. It notes how Orange and Ulster reduce costs by boarding-in other county and federal inmates. Additionally it recommends converting closed state facilities into jail annexes including the Green Haven Annex once used to segregate prison-farm workers. This minimum-security prison house large enough for 50-inmates was closed in 2009.

CRREO commended Dutchess County’s Alternatives to Incarceration program. Dutchess has over 700 offenders currently in ATIs. More than twice of those who enter the criminal justice system (66%) are diverted into the ATI program.

A special legislative jail study advisory committee is presently meeting biweekly to consider strategies to alleviate jail overcrowding, lower costs and increase in-county jail capacity. They are expected to issue their own report in December outlining how next the County should proceed.

The Changing Face of Mental Hygiene Services

Mike Kelsey — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:55:00 GMT

Now what? That’s the question mental health providers are asking as the fallout of Governor Cuomo’s state budget is felt in Dutchess County and throughout the state.

Cuomo's budget severely reduced the state Office of Mental Health, which until recently managed mental health care through county departments of mental hygiene. Instead under the budget coordination of care will be turned over during the next two years to private BMOs (behavioral management organizations), who for a profit will determine levels of care. The role of county mental hygiene departments will be reduced merely to “consultation” status, after an earlier plan to eliminate the county role altogether was defeated.

As the privatization of the mental health field goes ahead county leadership will need to address how the reduced county mental hygiene department will look. Certainly grievance boards will need to be created as a mechanism for checking and reviewing the decisions of BMOs when necessary care is denied. Beyond that in all likelihood we can anticipate the eventual merger of the mental hygiene and health departments as the two become synthesized under President Obama’s healthcare model.

The larger question is what happens to access to care. Under Cuomo’s Medicaid redesign New York State will be moving Medicaid recipients into the Health Home model championed by President Obama’s healthcare reform. These virtual "homes" will function through the Department of Health to manage comprehensive health concerns of Medicaid patients — physical as well as mental. The intent is to detect health risks early in the Medicaid population (mostly the indigent), and treat them now so as to avoid costly hospitalizations in later years. The short-term costs will be high because there will be case-findings, and the expectations are that the costs will be much higher than traditional services today.

There is also concern that with limited dollars, that BHOs will prioritize physical health needs at the expense of mental health services. Already the shift towards health homes is moving away from mental health care to a more comprehensive model with existing “mental health case managers” given enlarged responsibilities and renamed “care coordinators.” At present there are no safeguards to ensure acceptable levels of mental health treatment for patients. Last week Medicaid recipients were notified by mail that some prescriptions would be discontinued when the changes are fully implemented.

There is also fear that change is taking place too fast. The Medicaid Redesign Team was hurrying to have the health home model implemented by November 1st (this deadline has since been extended) in keeping with State Budget projections to take advantage of favorable federal reimbursement. Under the Obama healthcare plan the federal government will cover 90% of health care costs associated with health homes for two years. It is unclear what happens when the two years are up.

The sum result at present is chaos, with the future of mental health services in New York State best described at a recent provider meeting as a thick bucket of fog. The only clarity is that the driving force is not quality of care, but the dollar.