Dutchess County Legislature Board Meetings December 7 and December 18, 2023
Summary by Jane Smith
The central concern at these meetings was adoption of Dutchess County’s 2024 Budget.
County Executive William O’Neil submitted a proposed budget to the Legislature on November 1 st . The proposed budget was reviewed by the Legislature’s Budget, Finance and Personnel Committee, and legislators then proposed changes to the Executive’s proposal at the December 7 Board meeting through a series of amendments. These were voted upon by the Legislature at the meeting, and, at the same meeting, a budget that incorporated the approved amendments was approved by a vote of 15-9.
The December 7 meeting began with consideration of twenty “consent agenda items.” These were read by the clerk and ranged from resolutions authorizing both sizable capital improvements to County buildings and site improvements at Dutchess County Community College as well as the issuance of bonds to pay the cost thereof to reappointments of members of various County Boards. There was no discussion of these items and all were unanimously approved.
Eight additional proposed amendments (involving such things as providing cell phones to law enforcement for domestic violence cases, adjusting salaries of Board of Elections employees, hiring a of a part-time Special Populations Recovery Coach for young adults, adding funds for “Path to Promise” grants, and increasing the budget for the Human Rights Commission in anticipation of an increase in hate crimes) were included on the “non-consent agenda.” There was discussion of each.
All but one of these proposed amendments were approved: six were approved unanimously and one (involving an increase in the amount appropriated for debt service) was approved with only one “no” vote. Only one proposed amendment — involving the hiring of a solid waste consultant – was rejected; (this vote wasmostly along Party lines with all but one Republican voting no and Democrats voting yes).
After the vote approving the proposed budget with amendments, four more resolutions were discussed, voted upon and approved. Three resolutions were approved with little or no opposition: one involving the adoption of a tentative 2024-2028 Capital Improvement Plan for the county; one involving the authorization of improvements to the sports fields at Dutchess Community College; and one reducing the budgeted expenses of the Board of Elections. One matter received more extended discussion: a resolution requesting home rule legislation in the NY State Legislature authorizing Dutchess County to impose a .25% increase in the sales and compensating use tax. Those opposed stressed the financial struggle experienced by their constituents. Those in favor emphasized that many items were not taxed at all and that, with respect to expensive items like a car, the additional tax was relatively insignificant. The measure passed with a vote of 16 yes and 8 no.
After the December 7 Board Meeting, the budget was sent to the County Executive for his signature. County Executive McNeil vetoed four of the amendments to his proposed budget: providing cell phones to police officers for use in connection with domestic violence cases; adding funding to the Human Rights Commission budget; hiring a special populations recovery coach; and increasing funds for Path to Promise grants. These matters were revisited at the Special Legislative Board Meeting on December 18, 2023, where votes were taken whether to override the vetoes.
Notably, while each one of the vetoed amendments had been approved unanimously by the Legislature on December 7, each had been proposed by a legislator who ultimately voted “no” on the budget. In a memo provided to the Legislature, and discussed at the December 18 Board Meeting, County Executive McNeil made it clear (apparently for the first time and without prior notice) that, in his view, a legislator should not be allowed to sponsor an amendment and then vote against the full budget.
As one legislator (Brennan Kearney) put it at the meeting, the County Executive — in a portion of the memo entitled “Disingenuous Votes” —
- “has essentially stated that without offering full support for his budget, a legislator can have no hope of changing it, even in a positive direction, even with support of the full legislature from all parties.
- If a legislator is not willing to bow to the will of the County Executive, he or she cannot participate in any other way in the county budget.
- In the County Executive’s world without giving a stamp of approval to the whole budget a legislator gives up their right to make improvements to it. Offering an amendment while still disagreeing with the budget doesn’t make a legislator’s suggestions wrong or unworthy, and it certainly doesn’t make them disingenuous.
- In fact, it is one of the most hopeful aspects of our job to work as a legislature in the ways offered to us is to advocate for our constituents. To offer an amendment to the budget is at the very heart of what it means to govern. We are a government here.
- Governing is about agreeing and disagreeing on a myriad of issues, including the county budget.”
The Legislature voted on each of the vetoed items. The Legislature unanimously voted to override the veto of the amendment regarding police cell phones. (This was the only vetoed amendment that had been proposed by a Republican.) In the case of the three other amendments (that had been proposed by Democrats), 13 legislators (all Republican) went along with the County Executive, and, though they had previously voted in support of the amendments, 10 legislators voted to override, and, therefore, the veto was sustained.
Apart from the vetoed matters, the Legislature unanimously consented to a number of resolutions involving taxes, bonds, and personnel appointments.
Members of the public spoke at both the December 7 and December 18 Board Meetings. They objected to plans to temporarily house homeless people in a former jail, to public bus route changes, and to holding public hearings of the County Legislature on the same night as Public Hearings in the Town of Poughkeepsie.