| The governor's office seems to be intent on Greene County appointing its candidate for County Treasurer, or else:
CATSKILL - Greene County legislators and administrators learned late Monday afternoon, and confirmed on Tuesday, that Gov. David A. Paterson's office is withholding $500,000 in federal Greene County Department of Social Services reimbursement funds because the county legislature did not install Paterson's selection for interim Greene County Treasurer.
County legislature chairman Wayne Speenburgh said Tuesday that the county only learned of the withholding when a DSS staffer contacted Albany on Monday to find out why the June reimbursement payment was excessively late....
Speenburgh said that rather than react without the facts, they awaited Tuesday's business day and received confirmation from NYS Senator James Seward and NYS Assemblyman Pete Lopez that the money was, in fact, being withheld, and that it was because of the dispute over the interim Treasurer's position.
The dispute doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The County Treasurer resigned, and the County Legislature appointed a staffer to fill the seat temporarily. The Governor's office then insisted that it had the power to appoint, and nominated the Democrat running for the office in November. As that candidate puts it - I'm pretty certain rightly - in the article:
"I would argue that this does not help me," Pavese said.
And as other Democrats put it in the article:
"I want to stress again that the Democratic caucus of Greene County does not agree with the decision of the Governor to withhold this money," said Frey.
"I had never in my wildest dreams could have imagined the Governor would hold Greene County hostage," he said.
Fellow Democratic County Legislator Forest Cotten, of Catskill, concurred.
"I'm completely shocked and outraged," said Cotten. "I cannot believe the Governor would pick on the poorest members of our community."
"This county has upwards of 30 percent of people who receive assistance from DSS," said Cotten. "We absolutely cannot afford to lose this money."
I've heard a lot more talk lately about the state withholding funds from counties, mostly because Oneida County was talking about keeping some funds it sends the state in its own accounts unless the state paid what it owed. It's also come up in conversations about the Tompkins County budget and what happens if you don't live up to every state mandate the way the state wants.
When I was pondering running for Assembly, I realized early on that a key part of my platform was going to have to be a lowered local sales tax. That wasn't a voluntary thing - it was what I expected to result from demanding reform of a legislature that doesn't have to pass home rule legislation put forward by members who step out of line.
With luck, the Governor's office will come to its senses, but the damage has likely already been done. Much as I'd like to put this one down to the unpleasant side of Governor Paterson's apparently random style of governing, these are real issues we're going to be fighting over for the next few decades.
Do we want counties to be the local office of state government? |
