Republican Rockland County Executive Ed Day is warning against a New York state budget that dumps costs onto counties, towns and villages.
Day says there are a number of initiatives that cut aid to local municipalities while imposing costs without providing assistance, such as with early voting.
“I’m really, frankly, getting fed up with the state telling us we need to stay under the property tax cap, which I embrace, but, you know something, I expect the state to do the same thing,” Day says. “You can’t take money away, reimbursements away, and expect us to… We don’t print money here. We’re not the federal government. So we have to operate within budgets. And in mid-year of my budget to be telling me we’re going to be getting less reimbursements I think is inexcusable. There needs to be a better way of doing things here but, this shell game that we see every year coming out of Albany has got to stop.”
For example, one-house budget bills restore state funding for the Aid and Incentives to Municipalities, or AIM, program — funding that was not initially in the executive budget.
